US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met UAE de facto leader
Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan yesterday on a visit to Morocco [photo
credit: @humeyra_pamuk]
Al-Mazrouei insists that the UAE’s concern is for all sides and in
the best interests of the consuming nations and consumers. The UAE wants
“to incentivize talks to end the war.” However his suggestion that
sending weapons to Ukraine should be halted rather tips the scale on
behalf of the Russians. And though he said he was giving his personal
view it is surely one that reflects government thinking. He told Gamble:
(Talking) is better as an action than pouring weapons to the
Ukrainians and they are going to die. If we want them to die we should
encourage them to go and kill each other…. Giving more weapons is
pouring fuel on the fire…. I think we need to end this. As a father I
care about the families who are displaced. The war is ugly. We have seen
it in Iraq, in Syria. We have seen it in Afghanistan. War is ugly.
One war the minister did not mention has just passed its seven year
mark: Yemen, where the UAE remains deeply engaged despite its claim to
have withdrawn forces in 2019. The Emiratis remain in control of the strategic island of Socotra and just recently their proxy force, the Giants Brigade, engaged with the Houthis in the battle for the key governorate of Marib.
Yemen like many other MENA countries is facing further food
insecurity as a result of the war in Ukraine with grains and other
commodities prices soaring. Al-Mazrouei used food insecurity as another
reason for seeking an end to the fighting. And he spoke about the threat
of a worldwide recession driven by rampantly high energy prices. “We
don’t want prices to go higher,” he told Gamble.
He revealed that the US energy secretary Jennifer Granholm had not
reached out to him but he would always be there to listen: “there are
things we can agree and things that we could disagree and we are not
going to be told what to do. We know what is sensible for us.” And
though he insists the US remains a good friend and partner, China is a
valued partner with whom the UAE has a flourishing relationship. And he
made it clear that in the energy field Abu Dhabi’s ambitions include the
wider East with Indonesia being singled out.
Staking out the territory while delivering a backhanded slap to
Washington the energy minister insisted “we have a right to be friends
with everyone, we are not going to follow what one country wants.”
There is, of course, the old cliché about wanting to be friends with
all and winding up friends with none. Like the Saudis and the Egyptians,
the Emiratis are taking a calculated gamble that their tacit – and not
so tacit – support for Russia will not come back to bite.