It’s not a matter of trying to get the order from Airbus, its more to do with EK pushing Boeing in the direction of the 787-10. EK said the then current 787 was too small for them (a comment a lot of flagwavers took as meaning too small generally) and asked Boeing for a larger variant.

Now, it strikes me as odd that EK didn’t order the A350. If they say themselves that the 787 is too small, then the bigger A350 would be a natural choice. Airbus does of course advertise it as having better economics.
Unless of course, EK are not so convinced by Airbus’ claims for the A350? Bit I digress.

I think this is Boeing continuing their long standing custom of meeting their customer’s needs. Which is now back to priority 1 after a decade of silly management.