Over the past quarter century, Dubai, the UAE’s largest city, emerged as a center of global trade, finance and tourism, attracting wealthy expatriates. Iran enters an economic war with little to lose. The U.S. for years has tried to isolate Iran from the global economy, maintaining at least eight separate sets of financial sanctions. Businesses and individuals in Iran, a nation of 93 million, are prevented from using the U.S. dollar, the global reserve currency. Iran has launched thousands of missiles and drones against an ever-widening array of targets, achieving relatively modest results.

Source: Washington Post March 15, 2026 21:01 UTC