‘UAE is no easy prey’: Sultan Al Jaber’s powerful Washington speech
As regional tensions test resilience across the GCC, Sultan Al Jaber delivers a powerful message in Washington on leadership, stability and the UAE’s unwavering stance
28 March, 2026
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Note by Gareth van Zyl, group editor of Gulf Business
Martin Luther King Jr. famously said: “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
For many of us living in the GCC, the current regional crisis is revealing both the best and the worst of humanity.
That is why, listening to this powerful and moving speech by Dr Sultan Al Jaber — UAE minister of industry and advanced technology and ADNOC managing director and group CEO — I found myself feeling both inspired and reassured. Speaking in Washington overnight, where he was awarded the Distinguished Global Leadership Award by the influential Middle East Institute (MEI), which was founded in 1946, Al Jaber delivered a message that will resonate far beyond the room.
His remarks come at a critical moment, following high-level meetings in the US, including with Vice President JD Vance, where his focus has been on ensuring safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz: a critical artery for the global economy.
It is a speech that many across the UAE and wider GCC will draw strength from. We have published it in full below, along with including the video of the address published by MEI.
Full speech by Dr Sultan Al Jaber
March 27, The Ritz-Carlton, Washington, D.C.
Allow me to begin by congratulating the entire MEI family on your 80th anniversary. Eight decades of building bridges between the Middle East and the United States. Eight decades of hard work, and eight decades of dialogue. Eight decades of deepening trust. That is a legacy worth recognising.
Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, partners and friends,
I will not stand here and pretend that this is a normal evening, because it’s not.
On February 28, my country, the United Arab Emirates, came under attack. An illegal, unprovoked, unjustified, erratic terrorist attack. Over 2,200 missiles and drones. That is over 60 per cent of everything that has been launched at the Gulf, aimed at our cities, our ports, our infrastructure, and our people.
We did not seek this conflict. In fact, we worked very hard to prevent it. But when it came, we were ready. Our defences held, our people stood firm, and our country kept running.
And my president, His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, said it plainly: “The UAE is no easy prey. And we will emerge stronger than before.”
And I can tell you that is exactly what is going to happen.
I stand before you tonight as a proud son of my nation. A nation that did not flinch. A nation that did not freeze. A nation that stayed focused on progress, even as it defended itself from attack.
And I am proud to be here this evening in Washington, because even in a time of conflict, the UAE does not retreat from the world. We step up, we show up, and we continue to build bridges.
Iran wanted to export fear. Instead, they exported clarity, and it gave us the opportunity to show the world who we really are.
Excellencies, colleagues,
Awards are interesting things. Usually, they have one name on them. But they never belong to just one person. They are the sum of all those who helped shape you, guided you, and believed in you.
So, I accept this recognition with deep gratitude and great humility. Yet I honestly cannot accept it for myself alone.
Everything I know about leadership, I learned from one person: His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. His vision has shaped every chapter of my journey: and I mean every chapter.
His Highness does not talk about leadership. He embodies it.
Performing under pressure. Delivering stability when it matters most. Protecting all people from harm — citizens, residents, and visitors alike — and ensuring the nation keeps moving forward no matter what.
And here is what I find remarkable: that leadership did not stay at the top; it moved through an entire nation.
We see it in our armed forces, our civil defence, who are keeping the country protected and safe under sustained attack. We see it in nurses who stay at their posts while missiles and drones fly overhead. We see it in engineers who keep the lights on when it would have been easy to stop.
No one ordered them to be brave. They simply were.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
The last few weeks have reminded us of a fundamental truth: energy security is not a slogan. It is the difference between lights on and lights off.
And that difference runs through one narrow waterway — the Strait of Hormuz.
Nearly a fifth of the world’s oil, a third of its fertilisers, and vast flows of the raw materials that keep the global economy running all pass through a single chokepoint.
When Hormuz is open, the world barely thinks about it. When it is threatened, every economy on earth feels it: slower growth, higher prices, and the most vulnerable pay first.
So let me repeat what I said on Monday, because it bears repeating:
Weaponising the Strait of Hormuz is not an act of aggression against one nation. It is economic terrorism against every nation, every consumer, every family that depends on affordable energy and food.
When Iran holds Hormuz hostage, every nation pays the ransom — at the gas pump, at the grocery store, at the pharmacy — every household.
No country can be allowed to destabilise the global economy in this way. Not now, not ever.
And I genuinely struggle to understand why the world tolerates what can only be defined as an extortion on a global scale.
Colleagues,
You learn who your real partners are when the pressure rises — not in what they say, but in what they do, and how they show up.
And nowhere is that clearer than in the relationship between the UAE and the United States.
Across security, trade, investment, energy, technology, health care, education, and much more, our partnership is one of conviction. It is a partnership of true commitment.
Our partnership is not out of convenience. Our partnership is tested in peacetime and proven under fire.
A partnership like this matters now more than ever, because our region stands at a crossroads.
Two futures are competing for the Middle East.
One exports instability. The other builds industry.
One invests in proxies. The other invests in progress.
One seeks to build bombs. The other seeks to build bridges.
The UAE made its choice a long time ago. We chose openness over isolation, dialogue over discord, commerce over conflict.
I said a moment ago that you learn who your real partners are when the pressure rises. The same is true for nations.
Pressure does not build character. It reveals it.
So, if you allow me a moment, I would like to convey this message to His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan:
Your Highness, over the past weeks, and many conversations with UAE visitors and residents, and with leaders, investors, partners, and colleagues from around the world — including here in Washington — one message has been consistent:
The world now knows exactly what the UAE exemplifies: wisdom, integrity, dignity, resilience, and compassion.
This is your vision brought to life. This is your leadership in action. This is what the world witnessed when it mattered the most.
And this is the consistency of character that defines the UAE.
So tonight, I accept the Middle East Institute’s Distinguished Leadership Award on behalf of a nation that builds, a nation that partners, and a nation that steps up and shows up when it matters most.
In closing, allow me to thank my family: my anchor for always being there for me.
I also want to acknowledge the many partners, mentors, colleagues, and friends in this room here tonight. Some of you have been with me since the beginning, and some of you joined along the way.
All of you have shaped whatever success I have had.
So, from the bottom of my heart, I thank you.
I will treasure this. But more than that, I will treasure the relationships that made it possible.
I thank you.
ENDS
