ABU DHABI, JAN 26: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will not allow attacks on Iran to be launched from its territory, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday.

Last week, President Donald Trump said a US “armada” was heading toward the Gulf and that Washington was watching Iran closely after the protests subsided in the country.

The foreign ministry said in a statement it “has reaffirmed the United Arab Emirates’ commitment to not allowing its airspace, territory or waters to be used in any hostile military actions against Iran”.

The UAE hosts thousands of US personnel at Al Dhafra airbase near the capital Abu Dhabi, one of several American military sites in the Gulf.

The UAE also refuses to provide logistical support for attacks, the statement said, adding that “dialogue, de-escalation, adherence to international law, and respect for state sovereignty” were the best way to address “current crises”.

Iran has said it would treat any attack “as an all-out war against us”, as the US dispatched a military aircraft carrier strike group and other assets in the Middle East earlier this month.

US warships, including the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, several destroyers and fighter aircraft, started moving from the Asia-Pacific as tensions soared between Iran and the US in recent months.

“This military build-up — we hope it is not intended for real confrontation — but our military is ready for the worst-case scenario. This is why everything is on high alert in Iran,” said the senior Iranian official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“This time we will treat any attack – limited, unlimited, surgical, kinetic, whatever they call it — as an all-out war against us, and we will respond in the hardest way possible to settle this,” the official said.

The US military has in the past periodically sent increased forces to the Middle East at times of heightened tensions, moves that were often defensive. However, the US military staged a major build-up last year ahead of its June strikes against Iran’s nuclear programme.