‘A Ceasefire Is Not the End —
It Is Only the Beginning’
Six weeks into a regional conflict that has sent over 3,000 missiles toward the UAE, Minister Noura Al Kaabi speaks from the Zayed National Museum on resilience, diplomacy, accountability — and what comes next
This interview was originally conducted by Inzamam Rashid with photography by Katarina Premfors for Monocle, recorded during a week of live broadcasting from the UAE. The full interview is available at monocle.com. The following is FFN’s analysis and commentary.
There are moments when a single interview captures something larger than its occasion demands. Noura bint Mohammed Al Kaabi’s conversation with Monocle — conducted at the Zayed National Museum, six weeks into a conflict that has seen over 3,000 missiles directed at the UAE — is one of those moments. It is a portrait of a nation that refuses to be defined by what is being done to it.
As FFN’s Chief Executive and a long-standing advocate for minority rights and human dignity across the MENA region, I have watched the UAE’s conduct during this crisis with close attention. What Al Kaabi articulates is not a talking point — it is a doctrine: resilience, continuity, accountability, and a clear-eyed understanding that a ceasefire, however welcome, is merely the scaffolding on which a more durable peace must be built.
The interview took place at the Zayed National Museum during Monocle Radio’s week of live UAE broadcasting — a setting Al Kaabi called deliberately symbolic.
The region is six weeks into a war that has seen more than 3,000 missiles targeted at the UAE — a country that, as Al Kaabi notes, was not a party to the conflict yet has borne its consequences.
Weekend talks in Islamabad failed to produce a permanent deal, leaving a fragile ceasefire as the only buffer against resumed hostilities.
Pressure on the Strait of Hormuz — through which approximately 20% of global oil transits — has intensified focus on the UAE’s strategic position and its ability to defend international shipping lanes.
🏛️ “Resilience and Continuity” — The UAE’s Defining Words
Al Kaabi’s choice to speak from the Zayed National Museum is not incidental. It is an act of political communication: the museum, like the UAE itself, represents an idea. And it is that idea — open, pluralistic, forward-looking — that has been under attack. “This is not simply about geography,” she says. The UAE has not been a party to this war. Yet it has been targeted. That fact demands both acknowledgment and response.
“For more than 40 days, the UAE has been under attack, with more than 3,000 missiles targeted at the country. Yet today, it stands in a position of resilience and strength.”
— Noura bint Mohammed Al Kaabi, UAE Minister of StateWhat is striking about Al Kaabi’s framing is what it refuses to do: it refuses to define the UAE by victimhood. Schools remain open. Businesses continue to function. Society adapts. This is not complacency — it is a calibrated assertion that normal life is itself a form of resistance against those who seek to destabilize. For a country that has been struck by thousands of missiles, that insistence on continuity is an extraordinary statement of sovereign confidence.
💬 The Interview — Key Exchanges
Below are the defining exchanges from Al Kaabi’s conversation with Monocle’s Inzamam Rashid, presented with FFN’s contextual commentary.
“We are living in very difficult times. For more than 40 days, the UAE has been under attack, with more than 3,000 missiles targeted at the country. Yet today, it stands in a position of resilience and strength. Being here at the Zayed National Museum is symbolic. This institution represents an idea — and that idea is what is being attacked. This is not simply about geography. The UAE has not been part of this war, yet it has been targeted. The words that define this moment are resilience and continuity.”
“For us, a ceasefire is not the end — it is only the beginning. The UAE has been clear: we need accountability. We need these hostilities to stop. The Strait of Hormuz must remain an open, international waterway. It cannot be held hostage by any country. The global economy depends on it, from trade and energy to food security and the environment. Our position is focused and consistent: accountability, stability and ensuring that the systems underpinning global commerce remain protected.”
“Our priority is to defend our sovereignty — our land and our people. But we are also looking ahead. If this continues, we must ask: can we rely on existing routes? Should we develop alternatives? This moment is a test. And how a country responds to such a test defines it. In the UAE, life continues. Schools operate, businesses function and society adapts. There is continuity, even under pressure. At the same time, we are reassessing our relationships and our long-term strategy in a rapidly changing geopolitical environment.”
“The UAE has always been a country that builds relationships. We are open, outward-looking and home to people from across the world. Our partnerships with the US span sectors such as AI, education and culture. At the same time, we are deepening ties with countries such as China across trade, technology and research. Going forward, relationships will continue but with greater clarity. Safety comes first. We must be honest about threats and about the ideologies that have destabilised the region for decades. The key question is whether we allow the next generation to inherit the same cycles of conflict or whether we break them.”
“The UAE has always been about people. Its strength lies in the diversity of those who call it home. What we have seen during this crisis is solidarity. Despite everything, people have chosen to stay. That belief in the system is fundamental. There is often a perception that life here is transactional or temporary. But what we have witnessed proves otherwise. There is a deeper connection — a shared sense of belonging. As our leadership has said: everyone in the UAE is an Emirati. In a polarised world, that is something we must protect.”
⚓ The Strait of Hormuz: A Global Imperative
This is where the UAE’s position transcends regional politics and becomes a matter of universal concern. For those of us working on minority rights and human development across the MENA region, the stability of trade routes and economic arteries is not an abstraction — it directly determines whether fragile communities can access goods, sustain livelihoods, and maintain the social fabric that protects the most vulnerable.
🤝 “Everyone in the UAE Is an Emirati”
Perhaps the most striking passage in Al Kaabi’s interview is her account of what this crisis has revealed about UAE society. Against a narrative that has long characterized the UAE as a transactional space — a place people pass through rather than belong to — she presents the evidence of the crisis itself: people have chosen to stay. Communities have held together. Solidarity has been visible and real.
“Everyone in the UAE is an Emirati. In a polarised world, that is something we must protect.”
— Noura bint Mohammed Al Kaabi, UAE Minister of StateAs a human rights advocate who has spent years examining how states treat minorities and migrants, I find this declaration significant. The claim that belonging is not contingent on ethnicity or origin — that residence and commitment create a genuine civic identity — is not universally practiced in the region. That the UAE articulates it, and that residents have substantiated it through their conduct during the crisis, is a model worth examining seriously.
Al Kaabi also raises a question that should trouble every policymaker in the region: will we allow the next generation to inherit the same cycles of conflict? Or will we break them? It is the central question of our era in the Middle East — and the UAE, more than almost any other state, has the credibility and the practical experience to help answer it.
“The key question is whether we allow the next generation to inherit the same cycles of conflict — or whether we break them.”
— Noura bint Mohammed Al Kaabi, UAE Minister of StateA ceasefire is not the end. That much is clear. What comes next — the accountability mechanisms, the diplomatic architecture, the protection of global commons like the Strait of Hormuz, and the cultivation of a regional order where states are not dragged into wars by non-state actors — will determine whether this moment becomes a turning point or merely a pause. The UAE, under the kind of clear-eyed, confident leadership that Noura Al Kaabi embodies, is positioning itself to help shape that answer. Faith & Freedom News stands in full support of that effort.
Manel Msalmi is the Chief Executive of Faith & Freedom News and Founder & President of the European Association for the Defense of Minorities — a human rights advocate and interfaith peace activist specializing in the rights of religious and ethnic minorities across the MENA region and Europe. The original interview with Minister Al Kaabi was conducted by Inzamam Rashid for Monocle.
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