25 November 2024
Tall buildings, collective luxury cars, and promoting leading football clubs abroad provide only a fraction of justifiable animosity towards a small, ambitious monarchy. Rising from a British protectorate to an oil-producing country under close American monitoring the United Arab Emirates has developed a lust for profit and influence that is a parody of American capitalism represented in television series such as Dynasty and Dallas.
Member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), UAE follows the governance model prevailing in most of the six countries' organization spearheaded by Saudi Arabia.[1] The latter’s internal rigidity remains intact despite promotional efforts to demonstrate the contrary following the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul, Turkey in October 2018. Capricious monarchial decision-making is abundant in Saudi Arabia and neighboring GCC components. However, tensions may erupt among them under Saudi Arabia’s supremacy. Qatar has attempted to demonstrate uniqueness but has quickly been coopted by Saudi–Egyptian diplomacy.
Oman’s architecture is more than a physical departure from the awkward skyscraper style of the other GCC affiliates. Saudi Arabia and UAE consider Iran a major threat, notwithstanding slight shifts in the recent past, most notably by the enlargement of the BRICS group states. While Egypt and the UAE have become formal members, Saudi Arabia remains hesitant to join. Nevertheless, the Saudi–UAE offensive in Yemen continues to dominate their outlook for their region.[2]
The economic model of the UAE and much of the GCC countries is simple. Having energy as the main source of income, one or a few state companies are responsible for investing to maintain and increase the country’s financials. Productivity is minimal as wealth is distributed among members of large royal tribes. UAE’s demography is peculiar since the native population constitutes a small minority among a majority of mostly cheap migrant workers whose rights have been consistently violated.[3]
UAE is open to foreign designers and traders forming a global center for commercial crimes as well as drug trafficking.[4] Its quest for shaping Arab public opinion through satellite media outreach has been grotesque, producing channels resembling sales broadcasting. At times of regional crisis as during Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the instructions delivered to producers and presenters against Palestinians’ struggle and hardship have been too obvious for any meaningful consideration to take place.
UAE’s foreign investments reach Egypt[5] and Russia[6] lacking any ethical regulation adhering to the fiscal psychological behavior of a stock broker. Bets are not one-sided. Whitewashing is a precious commodity designated to conceal UAE’s recurring abusive practices.[7] Its arms trade has maintained the war in Sudan.[8] In 2019 UAE’s EDGE made the top 25 largest military producing and services providers, a first for a country from the Arab league.[9] The United States has practically ignored all of UAE’s deficiencies and sought to strengthen its five decades of relations with the oil rich country placing it on the right side of international cooperation,[10] against coordination with China and Russia.[11] UAE’s military is premised on the hired advice and training of former U.S. Army generals.[12]
Four Arab League countries signed normalization agreements with Israel during the first tenure of the Trump administration. Extreme American monetary and diplomatic pressure as well as incentives was exerted to achieve this result irrespective of Israel’s apartheid and colonial structure and nature that persistently represses Palestinians’ rights. The UAE required the least convincing of the four given its established security relations with Israel.[13]Biden and his team worked tirelessly to expand these senseless agreements hoping to capture the big prize of Saudi Arabia,[14] even during Israel’s assault against Gaza.[15]
What is peculiar from a geopolitical and strategic vision is that improvisations in the Middle East of Israel and its lobby in America remain directed primarily against Egypt despite the 1978 accords between the two countries and the problematic regime of Egypt without the latter taking any concrete measures.
During Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and despite being part of the United Nations Arab League group opposing Israel’s war, the UAE facilitated the transport of goods to Israel bypassing Yemen’s humanitarian intervention at the Red Sea. The inherently untalented country abdicated its sovereignty to the United States’ CENTCOM in the name of defending Israel from Iran’s retaliation after Israel attacked Iranian diplomatic objectives.[16]
UAE is an extreme extrapolation of GCC states’ nature. It embodies and sustains the stereotype about the ignorant, wealthy, conspiring, authoritarian, greedy, and desire driven Arab male. This version of humankind is the model sought by the United States foreign policy, its allies in the West, and Israel. All are equally loathsome.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro speaking in Congress on Expanding ‘peace accords’ with Israel, Congress, 9 March 2023. Source: The Atlantic Council.
Biden and UAE’s ruler Al-Nahyan walking outside the White House, September 2024. Source: Reuters.
[1] See Madawi al-Rashid’s writings on Saudi Arabia.
[2] Dan Sabbagh et al, “UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia unlawful, court of appeal declares”, The Guardian, 20 January 2019.
[3] “I Already Bought You” – Abuse and Exploitation of Female Migrant Domestic Workers in the United Arab Emirates, Human Rights Watch, 22 October 2022; Katie McQue, “‘Every day I cry’: 50 women talk about life as a domestic worker under Gulf’s kafala system”, The Guardian, 25 April 2024; Gulf States Treat Migrant Workforce as Disposable, Human Rights Watch, 18 December 2023.
[4] The Organized Crime Index – UAE, 2023.
[5] Patrick Werr et al, “Egypt announces $35 billion UAE investment on Mediterranean coast”, Reuters, 23 February 2024.
[6] Nikita Smagin, “Is the blossoming Relationship Between Russia and the UAE Doomed””, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 13 April 2023; “UAE Investments in Russia: A Testament to Growing Bilateral Relations”, ISPI, 18 June 2024; Carmen Molina Acosta et al, “Russians bought up $6.3B in Dubai property after 2022 Ukraine invasion, report finds”, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, 22 May 2024.
[7] UAE: Tolerance Narrative a Sham, Human Rights Watch, 1 October 2021; Areeb Ullah, “’Whitewash’: UK accused over journalism prize promoting ‘tolerant’ UAE”, Middle East Eye, 12 September 2019.
[8] Oscar Rickett, “How the UAE kept the Sudan war raging”, Middle East Eye, 25 January 2024.
[9] Arms transfer and SALW controls in the Middle East and North Africa: Challenges and state of play, SIPRI, 1 November 2022.
[10] White House, U.S. – UAE Joint Leaders’ Statement Dynamic Strategic Partners, 23 September 2024.
[11] Vivian Nereim, “An Oil-Rich Ally Tests Its Relationship with the U.S.”, New York Times, 8 August 2023.
[12] Craig Whitlock et al, “UAE Relied on Expertise of Retired U.S. Troops to Beef Up its Military”, Washington Post, 18 October 2022.
[13] Noa Landau, “Israel – UAE Deal Brings 25 Years of Covert Diplomacy Out of the Shadows”, Haaretz, 4 September 2020; Shira Efron, “The Real Reason Gulf States Are Normalizing Relations with Israel Right Now”, Haaretz, 16 September 2020; Hagai Amit, “The Real Deal for Israel and the UAE is Weapons”, Haaretz, 17 August 2020.
[14] Mark Mazetti et al, “Biden Administration Engages in Long – Shot Attempt for Saudi – Israel Deal”, New York Times, 17 June 2023; Edward Wong et al, “Biden Aides and Saudis Explore Defense Treaty Modeled After Asian Pacts”, New York Times, 19 September 2023.
[15] Alexander Langlois, “Blinken appears laser focused on a Saudi – Israel deal, at all costs”, Responsible Statecraft, 30 April 2024. See also Jacob Magid, “Ex – US ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro tapped as Biden’s first Abraham Accords envoy”, Times of Israel, 29 June 2023.
[16] John Hannah, U.S., Israeli, Arab, Coordination in Mideast Against Iran Comes to Fruition, JINSA, 18 April 2024.
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