By Iqbal Jassat
It is entirely misplaced to believe as many political pundits do, that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a force for stability in West Asia and in Africa.
At the same time, it would be naive to overlook that it has built a regional network of military, political and economic influence that has reshaped conflicts from Yemen and Libya to Sudan.
Given that Palestine is central to understanding UAE strategy, the relationship Abu Dhabi has developed with Israel cannot be separated from its wider regional project.
It is in this context that Abu Dhabi has identified Islamic Resistance Movements as well as popular movements demanding political change as strategic threats.
Following the Israeli playbook, to contain or crush these movements, its response has always been to ally with governments, military factions and political forces capable of repressive criminal conduct.
Thus it is no surprise to note that such a strategy intersected directly with Israel’s own security interests.
The 2020 Abraham Accords formalised diplomatic relations between the UAE and Israel. The agreement opened the door to rapid expansion of economic and strategic cooperation, including defence relationships, without any regard for the Genocide in Gaza.
While the UAE presented normalisation as a mechanism for peace and claimed that it had stopped Israel’s annexation of parts of the West Bank, this myth has been exposed given intense violent settlement expansionism as well as the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians across the Occupied West Bank.
Having dumped Palestine’s freedom struggle, Abu Dhabi adopted normalisation as a gateway for Israel to increasingly integrate with Arab governments while the occupation and massacres continued.
However, with the Palestinian cause being separated from regional diplomacy, which is what the UAE’s regional strategy is all about, the rest of the Arab governments’ so-called stance on Palestinian statehood is exposed as fake.
The evidence speaks for itself:
Israel gained diplomatic recognition, economic access and strategic partnerships with Arab states while Palestinian statehood remained unresolved.
As a participant in Trump’s unilaterally conceived Board of Peace and a member of the Gaza Executive Board, the UAE is in a position that extends far beyond humanitarian assistance.
Though it gives Abu Dhabi a role in the political architecture being constructed around postwar Gaza in cahoots with Zionist war criminals, its track record of collaboration with the settler colonial regime does not provide any hope.
After all in Yemen, the UAE supported local armed forces and developed influence in southern Yemen.
In Libya, it backed Khalifa Haftar and supplied military equipment and drones.
In Sudan, extensive evidence and reporting has connected UAE backed networks to the Rapid Support Forces.
And in Palestine, the UAE has established itself as one of the Arab states with zero interest in defending fundamental rights of the Occupied Palestinians.
UAE leaders claim to provide tons of aid but as is well-known, humanitarian assistance does not erase geopolitical alignment.
It is bizarre to proclaim angelic values while simultaneously maintaining normalised relations with perpetrators of satanic evil.
Surely such contradiction deserves scrutiny and outrage.
Nearly three years of genocide in Gaza have not stopped the UAE from maintaining full diplomatic, commercial and security ties with Israel.
Iqbal Jassat
Executive Member
Media Review Network
Johannesburg
South Africa