UAE Cyber Chief Calls for Gulf Cybersecurity Union After Iran War Cyberattacks

Speaking at the 13th Abu Dhabi Strategic Debate, held on Monday and Tuesday under the title "After the Storm: Implications of the Iran War and the New Rules of Power", Al Kuwaiti said the Gulf Cooperation Council's cybersecurity committee was an important framework for coordination. He added that it had never been responsible for responding to attacks or dealing with them directly on behalf of member states, according to Al Bayan's report of his remarks.

During the Iranian attacks on countries in the region and the cyberattacks that came with them, each Gulf state managed its own response through its national systems and procedures, Al Kuwaiti said, while information and expertise continued to flow between them. A union of the kind he described would move the GCC from sharing intelligence to defending its members jointly. That is a significant change for states whose power grids, health systems and energy infrastructure have been targeted.

He said the war was fought online as well as on the battlefield, with health, education and energy among the sectors that faced intrusion attempts as the physical attacks took place. UAE agencies analysed intrusion patterns and identified the indicators and sources of attacks, which helped deter and neutralise them, he said. The main aim was to protect national digital assets and stop attacks from disrupting essential services.

Al Kuwaiti said Gulf cooperation already works well in exchanging indicators of compromise, attack patterns and technical threat data. He described the Gulf approach as defensive rather than offensive, and said deterrence in cyberspace depends mainly on alliances with international partners and the private sector, along with cooperation between national institutions in each country.

He also pointed to a legal gap. Unlike conventional warfare, which is governed by treaties such as the Geneva Conventions, there is still no binding international legal framework for cyber warfare and cyberattacks, he said. He noted that the United Nations is still discussing a global framework to limit such threats and to bar attacks on critical infrastructure where a breach could cause heavy losses or endanger lives.

Omran Sharaf, the UAE's assistant minister of foreign affairs for advanced science and technology, told the same meeting that modern technologies are far easier to obtain, develop and use than earlier strategic technologies such as nuclear power, which makes international cooperation a necessity rather than a choice. He warned that excessive legislation and restrictions could stifle innovation and leave countries behind, and argued that partners should allow for differences in how societies define risk.

Sharaf said the UAE's experience of intercepting missiles and drones since the war began on February 28 had shown the importance of diversifying defensive tools. He described a new era of "geotechnology" in which technological capability shapes the balance of power. Artificial intelligence, he said, is still at an early stage, and as it advances and spreads it will reshape the world politically and geopolitically in the coming years.

No timetable or formal GCC proposal for the union was announced at the meeting.