UAE and Iran leaders meet at the BRICS summit for the first time since the war

Euronews · collected 2026-09-13 · by Mohamed Elashi, Peter Barabas
Read the original at Euronews ↗

Summary

During the BRICS summit in India, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan met with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian for the first time since the UAE suspended all trade and financial dealings with Iran in August. The meeting marks an effort to reduce tensions and strengthen regional stability, though no immediate changes to sanctions were announced. Analysts suggest that while trust between the two nations remains low, managing relations is crucial for the UAE's strategic interests in preserving trade and energy security.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-13, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
30
claim-shaped sentences
Uncertain
3%
1 of 30 hedged
Leaning
withheld
no quote in the article backed the model's score
Correction & hedging signals
95.1
corrections and hedging in what we collected; not a measure of accuracy
Outlets on this story
1
World
Narrative spread
1
articles carrying this framing
Analyzed 2026-09-13 · how these are computed

AI analysis (generated at analysis time, not now)

Story summary

At the BRICS summit in India on Sunday, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan met with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, marking their highest-level meeting since the start of the US-Israel conflict with Iran. This comes after the UAE suspended trade and financial dealings with Tehran in August due to rising regional tensions. The UAE's presidential diplomatic adviser, Anwar Gargash, emphasized that rebuilding trust between the two nations will require significant efforts, as "trust is a mountain to climb." Both leaders agreed on the importance of reducing tensions and stabilizing the region through concrete actions rather than just rhetoric.

Written for “UAE Iran Leaders Meet Brics Summit” on 2026-09-14, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
The model judged this article politically coded and scored it -0.35, but 2 quote(s) could not be found in the article and the other 1 are attributed speech rather than the article's own narration, so the score is not published.
Written under an earlier scoring contract, which gave a paragraph rather than checkable quotes. Re-analysing this article replaces it.
Leaning score withheld for article 8415: no verified evidence · logged 2026-09-13

Story

📰 UAE Iran Leaders Meet Brics Summit
World · 1 article(s) covering the same event. This is the one the site leads with.

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 3% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Euronews
⚖️ Leans left 🔴 7% hedged 1 of 14 📰 publisher trust 95
“The articles describe different meetings at the BRICS summit: one involving Russian and Chinese leaders arriving in India, while the other is about a meeting between UAE and Iran leaders.”
Semafor
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 33% hedged 1 of 3 📰 publisher trust 96
“The articles describe different meetings at the BRICS summit: one focuses on Russia and China's leaders visiting India, while the other details a meeting between UAE and Iran leaders.”
Al Jazeera
⚖️ Leans left 🔴 5% hedged 3 of 62 📰 publisher trust 96
“While both articles mention Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian at the BRICS summit in India, Article A focuses on the broader context of tensions and conflicts between Iran and other countries, whereas Article B specifically details a meeting between UAE's Crown Prince and the Iranian president.”
Al Jazeera
⚖️ Leans left 🔴 11% hedged 7 of 62 📰 publisher trust 96
“Article A discusses the broader context and challenges facing BRICS countries during their summit, while Article B focuses on a specific meeting between UAE and Iran leaders at the BRICS summit.”
ABC News (AU)
⚖️ Leans left 🔴 5% hedged 1 of 21 📰 publisher trust 60
“The articles describe meetings and interactions at the BRICS summit involving different sets of leaders from Iran, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Russia, China, etc., but they do not describe the same specific event or interaction.”
Al Jazeera
⚖️ Leans left 🔴 8% hedged 4 of 50 📰 publisher trust 96
“Article A focuses on a specific meeting between UAE and Iranian leaders, while Article B provides an overview of key takeaways from the BRICS summit without detailing that particular meeting.”

Publisher

Euronews · 189 article(s) · 0 correction(s) detected
No corrections detected for this publisher. That may mean careful reporting, or simply that nothing has been checked.

Who wrote this

Peter Barabas
4 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 The talks mark the countries’ highest-level meeting since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran, as the UAE has been making it clear through presidential diplomatic adviser Anwar Gargash that "trust is the mountain we will have to climb," as "geography leaves us no alternative to engagement," but that those relations will need to be judged by actions and not words to rebuild the shattered trust.
🔮 Admiral Brad Cooper, the commander of CENTCOM, announced the US strikes on the Iranian tankers by warning Tehran, saying "let the message to the IRGC be clear: If you shoot at two of our ships, we will impose an even higher economic cost —taking out three of yours.
🔮 A spokesperson for Iran's joint military command warned that strikes against US military ships would be more severe if the US continues to interfere with Iranian shipping, the Iranian state broadcaster reported.
🔮 Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told the country’s lawmakers on Monday that Armenia would begin preparing to apply for EU membership, in a historic geopolitical shift for a country formerly in Russia’s orbit and for the South Caucasus as a whole.
Also by Peter Barabas
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
Mohamed Elashi
3 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 The talks mark the countries’ highest-level meeting since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran, as the UAE has been making it clear through presidential diplomatic adviser Anwar Gargash that "trust is the mountain we will have to climb," as "geography leaves us no alternative to engagement," but that those relations will need to be judged by actions and not words to rebuild the shattered trust.
🔮 An Egyptian television presenter faces execution after a Cairo court sentenced her to death for financing and coordinating a synthetic drug network, but her lawyer says they will appeal, and legal experts say the case is far from over. Sarah Khalifa, known for hosting the crime programme Mission Impossible on private channel Al-Mehwar and for her events business, was sentenced on Saturday alongside 11 others in a major synthetic drug manufacturing and trafficking case. Nine defendants received life sentences and seven were acquitted.
🔮 Later that month, Netanyahu apologised to Qatar during a call with US President Donald Trump and the Qatari prime minister, saying Israel would not carry out such an attack again.
Also by Mohamed Elashi
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.

Topics

Abu Dhabi BRICS Iran Tehran UAE

Subjects

UAE GPE · 9× Iran GPE · 6× BRICS GPE · 4× Tehran GPE · 4× Abu Dhabi GPE · 2× Anwar Gargash PERSON · 2× China GPE · 2× India GPE · 2× Iranian NORP · 2× Israel GPE · 2×

Narrative

The talks mark the countries’ highest-level meeting since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran, as the UAE has been making it clear through presidential diplomatic adviser Anwar Gargash that "trust is the mountain we will have to climb," as "geography leaves us no alternative to engagement," but that those relations will need to be judged by actions and not words to rebuild the shattered trust.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-13
🔮 The talks mark the countries’ highest-level meeting since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran, as the UAE has been making it clear through presidential diplomatic adviser Anwar Gargash that "trust is the mountain we will have to climb," as "geography leaves us no alternative to engagement," but that those relations will need to be judged by actions and not words to rebuild the shattered trust.

Claims (30 extracted, 1 hedged)

The talks follow the UAE’s suspension of trade and financial dealings with Iran in August and follow UAE's firm position that trust with Iran "is a mountain to climb" after Iran's attacks on the Gulf countries. asserted
trust → follow → countries
Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan met Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian on Sunday during the BRICS summit in India, weeks after the UAE announced a suspension of trade and financial dealings with Tehran. asserted
UAE → meet → Tehran
The talks mark the countries’ highest-level meeting since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran, as the UAE has been making it clear through presidential diplomatic adviser Anwar Gargash that "trust is the mountain we will have to climb," as "geography leaves us no alternative to engagement," but that those relations will need to be judged by actions and not words to rebuild the shattered trust. asserted
relations → mark → trust
The Abu Dhabi Media Office said the two leaders stressed the importance of supporting efforts to reduce tensions and strengthen regional stability. asserted
leaders → say → stability
On 19 August, the UAE’s foreign ministry announced that it had halted all trade and financial transactions with Iran until further notice, citing regional escalation. asserted
it → announce → escalation
The same statement reaffirmed the UAE’s commitment to dialogue and regional cooperation. asserted
statement → reaffirm → dialogue
Saturday’s account of the meeting did not announce a change to the trade restrictions or a specific agreement between the two countries. asserted
account → announce → countries
Former head of Israel’s military intelligence research department Danny Citrinowicz explained in a post on X that "despite all the bad blood between Abu Dhabi and Tehran, the emerging Gulf approach, and particularly the UAE’s, is increasingly clear: manage the Iranian risk rather than push Tehran into a corner." "This does not mean trust. asserted
This → explain → trust
Rebuilding even a basic level of confidence between the two sides will take years. asserted
Rebuilding → rebuild → years
But from Abu Dhabi’s perspective, maintaining channels with Tehran is itself a form of strategic hedging. asserted
maintaining → maintain → hedging
The UAE has little interest in becoming a frontline state in another regional war," the Israeli security analyst said. asserted
analyst → have → war
Calls to protect trade and energy Both countries are members of BRICS, the group of emerging economies that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. asserted
that → protect → Brazil
They backed the summit’s New Delhi Declaration, adopted on Saturday, which expressed concern over escalating tensions in the Middle East and called for “maximum restraint”. asserted
which → back → restraint
The declaration urged the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure, respect for national sovereignty and a lasting settlement through diplomacy. asserted
declaration → urge → diplomacy
Leaders also called for cooperation to keep global trade, supply chains and energy moving, in line with international law. asserted
Leaders → call → law
Chinese President Xi Jinping urged BRICS to help bring peace to the region, saying China would work with other members towards that goal. asserted
China → urge → goal
The declaration also criticised unilateral tariffs and sanctions and supported further work on international payments and trade using members’ own currencies. asserted
declaration → criticise → currencies
Speaking on Sunday at the BRICS Plus outreach session, which brings members together with other invited countries, Pezeshkian said attacks on a country’s economic and energy infrastructure had consequences beyond its borders. asserted
attacks → speak → borders
He said unilateral sanctions affected food security and people’s welfare, and called for greater use of national currencies and a stronger role for the New Development Bank, the lender established by BRICS countries. asserted
sanctions → say → countries
Hormuz talks planned in Oman asserted
talks → plan → Oman
Separately, Pezeshkian said Arab foreign ministers were due to meet in Muscat on Monday to sign an agreement establishing a joint Iran-Oman shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz, disregarding the Gulf countries' united position that the strait must be open to free international navigation. asserted
strait → say → navigation
The UAE president's diplomatic advisor Anwar Gargash underlined days ago the country's firm position that it would not accept a single state's control of the strategic Strait of Hormuz and that it was unacceptable for oil tankers to be threatened and attacked while attempting to transit the key waterway. asserted
tankers → underline → waterway
“Our energy exports will not be held hostage, nor will our trade and economic activity,” Gargash said. asserted
Gargash → hold → ?
In an interview published on Saturday, Pezeshkian said the International Maritime Organisation would then be informed of the agreement. asserted
Organisation → publish → agreement
Iran had already announced on 5 August that it had agreed the location of a proposed shipping route with Oman. asserted
it → announce → Oman
At the time, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the arrangement alone could not guarantee safe navigation while the US naval blockade and other actions against Iran continued. uncertain
blockade → say → Iran
Pezeshkian also said in Saturday’s interview that Iran would reopen the strait when the United States ended its blockade and attacks. asserted
States → say → blockade
His remarks did not set a date for reopening the waterway. asserted
remarks → set → waterway
On Sunday, Qeshm governor Amir Teymouri said one person had been killed after a merchant vessel was struck near Iran's Hengam and Qeshm islands. asserted
vessel → say → islands
He did not identify the source of the strike. asserted
He → identify → strike
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