The rumour was that the UAE Gov getting involved not Etihad
It's obvious that it will be the government. It'll be only at a very later stage that AUH will just say to DXB what to do next if they feel Etihad is not getting a fair deal. Watch the frequencies to Australia, Europe and States when they have to negotiate them again. It'll be more for AUH.
Do you guys remember what they did around 4 or 5 years ago among others? All they did in few words was to tell DXB to gently remove the Burj Al Arab silhouette from the DXB car number plates, and they had to.