An Axios report revealed that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince, and the de facto leader of the UAE, Mohammed bin Zayed last month.

The UAE had announced its disappointment by what it considered to have been a weak and slow US response to the Ansar Allah's retaliatory attacks, which it qualified as "restrained" at the time, with things going as far as the Emirates and Saudi Arabia declining calls with Biden. 

The Biden administration was also disappointed by the Emirati and Saudi response to the war in Ukraine. This, coupled with the US pleading with its two allies to increase their oil and gas output to bring down prices outside the context of OPEC+, with the two keeping their production levels unchanged, and Riyadh's talks with Beijing about pricing a portion of its oil sales in yuan, helped bring the relations to a historic low, with tensions running high.

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According to Axios' sources, Blinken's apology apparently helped ease those tensions. The apology may be part of a US detour toward ameliorating tensions with its Arab allies in order to bring down global energy prices, and prevent their allies' pivot toward China and Russia.

Blinken admitted during his meeting with MbZ that the Biden administration took too long to respond to the attacks, and said he was sorry. 

A senior official in the State Department declined to comment on the conversation but didn't deny this account.

“The Secretary made clear that we deeply value our partnership with the UAE and that we will continue to stand by our partners in the face of common threats," the senior State Department official said.