Emirati Billionaire Questions Iran War as Dubai Influencers Shape Public Narrative

As the Iran war entered its sixth day, a social media post by the Emirati billionaire Khalaf Al Habtoor presented rare criticism of the conflict and signaled that, despite what was being portrayed online, all was perhaps not well in the Arab countries of the Gulf.

In an open letter addressed to President Donald Trump, the Dubai real estate and business tycoon lambasted the U.S. leader for dragging the Gulf states and the wider Middle East into a war not of their choosing. Habtoor’s post is significant because of his deeply enmeshed relationship with Dubai’s ruling family — his firm is one of the architects of Dubai’s modern renaissance — and it led to questions over whether the message was officially sanctioned by the rulers of the United Arab Emirates.

“A direct question: Who gave you the choice to push our region into a war with Iran, and on what basis did you make this dangerous decision? Did you consider the collateral damage before pressing the trigger? Did you consider that the first victims of this escalation are the region’s states? The peoples of this region also have the right to ask: Did you make this decision alone, or is it a result of pressure from Netanyahu and his government?”

Habtoor pointed out that the U.S. decision to go to war with Iran not only threatened the region’s people but also the American people, whom the president had promised peace and prosperity. 

“They are, today, finding themselves in a war funded by their money and taxes, with costs ranging, according to the Institute for Policy Studies, between $40 and $65 billion for direct military operations, with $210 billion in economic impacts and indirect losses if the war lasts four to five weeks,” he added.

He reminded the U.S. president of his promise not to get involved in overseas wars and warned him of his declining approval ratings at home.

In another post, Habtoor questioned who would be held accountable for the damage inflicted on the Gulf and Middle East. “Who will pay the price for the tensions imposed on us as a result of a conflict we have no part in, among Iran, America and Israel?” he asked, adding that the entire region bears the consequences of the war involving the three countries. 

This marked a rare anti-war statement at a time when both Qatar and the UAE have issued carefully worded instructions that effectively ban residents from sharing news about the war on social media, ostensibly to guard against the spread of unsubstantiated information about the attacks online. One false report on Indian news channels mislabeled video of an Iranian drone attack on Bahrain as coming from the UAE. 

Even if the governmental warnings were intended to control panic among the public, they also caused confusion about what one could or could not share on social media. 

Not so with influencers, it seems. Much of the Gulf’s public-facing response to the conflict has been led by content creators based in the region. So much so that it may not be far-fetched to see them as unofficial spokespeople for many of the region’s major cities. Dubai, in particular, has spent the last decade cultivating a vast ecosystem of influencers to market the city — and the broader Gulf region — as an oasis of safety and luxury. 

“You live in Dubai, aren’t you scared? No, because I know who protects us.” Over the past week, this caption has gone viral on social media, repeated across nearly identical posts showing the UAE’s leaders casually getting coffee at the mall. 

Despite this, life in Dubai quickly became the subject of heated debates on social media, with many arguing that the city’s carefully curated image of safety had begun to crack. 

Bollywood celebrities such as Lara Dutta, a former Miss Universe titleholder, shared her ordeal of being stranded in the city, while influencers and celebrities who had made Dubai their home became the subject of jokes and mockery online. Their loyalty to a country they were not even citizens of was widely questioned. 

But long-term residents, particularly those born and raised in the region, responded by pointing out that life in the country extends far beyond influencers. A middle-class population calls the city home, as do blue-collar workers, who often bear the brunt of crises and are on the front lines of the current conflict.