Senior officials in the administration of Donald Trump encouraged the United Arab Emirates to take a more direct role in the conflict with Iran and capture one of its islands in the Persian Gulf, according to a report by The Telegraph.
The report said figures close to Trump proposed that the UAE move to control Lavan Island, which it said had been targeted in covert Emirati strikes in early April.
“Go take them!” one senior official told the British newspaper. “It would be Emirati boots on the ground instead of American ones.”
