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Marc Sievers

Marc Sievers

Abu Dhabi-based business consultant and Middle East policy analyst; former U.S. Ambassador to Oman (2016–2019) and inaugural director of AJC Abu Dhabi.

Sep 18, 2026

4:19
So How is it like personally and as a society and relate to that Iranian threat?
4:26
So personally, my wife and I were here throughout the war.
4:33
I was invited to a conference in India in mid-March and actually got one of the first planes out of Abu Dhabi airport after it had been shut, after being hit by rockets.
4:43
by Iranian missiles at the beginning of the first day of the war.
4:48
But that was three days and we came right back and we have felt very, very secure here.
4:55
The air defenses, the layered defenses, We're tremendously successful and very, very impressive.
5:03
I think the first couple of days, we heard a lot of booms and once or twice encountered some debris in the streets from falling trees.

14 MINS LATER

19:06
You alluded to it at the beginning, but I wondered now kind of the elephant in the room being the Saudi Arabia, where does Israel stand on that? And that kind of a second part of the question is specifically relating also to you mentioned before the tension over Bab al-Mandeb, if there is some potential cooperation behind the scenes between Israel and Saudi Arabia in a more meaningful sense.

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