Senior Emirati official Anwar Gargash called on Sunday for a strategic regional vision that places Gulf states at the center of security talks with Iran rather than on the receiving end of Iranian attacks while Tehran is holding negotiations with the United States.

Axar.az reports that Gargash, a senior diplomatic adviser to Emirati President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, spoke on Sunday with Al-Monitor's editor-in-chief at an event in New York about the UAE’s relations with Iran, how Abu Dhabi views the rivalry with Saudi Arabia, the conflict in Yemen and more.

"What I see is a prolonged conflict, not necessarily in the same sort of tempo, because if we really look at the conflict from the last year of February towards March and onwards, the tempos changed, but the conflict itself has continued," Gargash said of the ongoing US-Israel-Iran war, now in its seventh month.

The Emirati official described a time of uncertainty that could be marred with instability inside Iran, while stressing Abu Dhabi's interest in prioritizing diplomacy and good relations with its neighbor. "We have also realized that we will be dealing with with an unstable Iran for a period," he said.

"It is understandable that in a time of crisis, the party that actually holds … the gun or whatever is the dominant party," he said, referring to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. "Ultimately we are looking at a crisis that will have different phases, but will take some time. We are also looking at an Iran that does not look like Iran in the last 37 years under one central authority of the Great Ayatollah Ali Khamenei."

He added that it will be difficult for new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei to “fill those shoes.” The elder Khamenei was killed in an Israeli strike in late February and succeeded by his son, who has yet to be seen in public since the war began.