UAE plays ‘troubling’ role in humanitarian crises, regional instability: US think tank

An American think tank says the United Arab Emirates has contributed to humanitarian crises and instability in the Middle East region, urging the administration of Joe Biden to halt Washington’s support for the Arab nation.

The UAE “spends lavishly throughout the corridors of power in Washington, DC to portray itself as a pillar of stability and progress. But the actions of the United Arab Emirates these past four years reveal a different, more troubling reality,” said an article published on Responsible Statecraft, a publication of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

The essay noted that the harmful conduct of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed - commonly known as MBZ- was enabled by the former administration of Donald Trump, adding that the UAE's foreign policy "undermines US strategic interests in the Middle East."

It stressed that the new administration should not only revise Trump’s “egregious missteps,” but also “put an end to US arms sales to and diplomatic support for the UAE, which have helped create humanitarian crises and regional instability.”

The article referred to the UAE's role in the chaos that has gripped Libya, saying Abu Dhabi “persistently violated a UN arms embargo by funding and arming the renegade warlord Khalifa Haftar in his campaign against the internationally recognized Libyan government in Tripoli.”

It also noted that the UAE has established its own military base in the north African country, and sent drone aircraft to conduct unlawful airstrikes that claimed the lives of tens of civilians.

The article also described the UAE’s role in Yemen as “even more grim.”

The UAE is a key member of the Saudi-led aggression and siege against Yemen.

Riyadh and a number of its regional allies launched the devastating war on Yemen in March 2015 in order to bring former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crush the Houthi Ansarullah movement.

The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war has claimed more than 100,000 lives over the past years.

“There, despite its declared troop withdrawal, the UAE remains a party to the intractable war causing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, leaving millions of Yemenis on the brink of starvation,” the think tank said.

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It noted that the UAE conducted “deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on civilians, as well as hospitals, schools, universities, and residential areas, reducing them to rubble,” and “operated secret detention centers with credibly documented reports of torture and murder of detainees.”

The article also pointed out that the UAE “supported mercenaries accused of funneling US-made arms and materiel to al-Qaeda-linked militias in Yemen.”

It also referred to the UAE's support for Southern separatists in a war against Hadi himself, while claiming to want to restore him to power.

“Biden should move to end arms sales to the UAE, the principal fuel for its disastrous interventions, and end diplomatic support for the reckless policies of an unaccountable leader,” the article said.

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