# The UAE, Iran, and the Hostage at the Heart of the Oil War

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-david-mcwilliams-podcast-512453/the-uae-iran-and-the-hostage-at-the-heart-of-the-oil-war
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-david-mcwilliams-podcast-512453/the-uae-iran-and-the-hostage-at-the-heart-of-the-oil-war.md
Podcast: [The David McWilliams Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-david-mcwilliams-podcast-512453)
Published: 2026-05-07T03:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://shows.acast.com/the-david-mcwilliams-podcast/episodes/uaeiranheartofoil
Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/acast/s/the-david-mcwilliams-podcast/e/69fb683d921510d4c18d86cd/media.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-david-mcwilliams-podcast-512453/episodes/the-uae-iran-and-the-hostage-at-the-heart-of-the-oil-war
Duration seconds: 2317

## Resource

The UAE has just walked out of OPEC after nearly 60 years, and the timing is no accident. This week, we head to Abu Dhabi and Dubai to ask what's really going on. Why now? Why leave the cartel in the middle of a war? What does it mean for the price of petrol in your car, for Trump's midterms, and for the geopolitics of the Gulf? We get into the strange tacit alliance between the UAE and Israel, why Iran's real leverage isn't the Straits of Hormuz but the Emirates themselves, and how Saudi Arabia's old swing-producer power is being quietly dismantled. We also draw a much bigger lesson for small countries everywhere, including Ireland: the multilateral world that small states have hidden inside since the 1940s is breaking down, and the UAE's gamble is a glimpse of the hard choices that lie ahead. Oil, war, money, and the end of an era, all in one episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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## Transcript

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