WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden on Thursday designated Qatar a key non-NATO ally of the United States, fulfilling a promise he made to the Gulf state this year , the White House said .
The United States gives this designation to close non-NATO allies who have strategic working relationships with the US military.
Biden promised Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in January during a White House meeting that he would grant Qatar this special status.(Reuters)
US Senate approves $2.2 billion in military sales to Egypt
WASHINGTON: The US Senate on Thursday approved a $2.2 billion sale of C-130 Super Hercules aircraft to Egypt, with a vote of 81 to 18. They tried to block the deal due to human rights concerns .
Republican Senator Rand Paul tried to block the deal, and some members of the Senate, mostly Democrats, joined him. Opponents of the deal argue that US companies should not sell weapons to countries with poor human rights records.
Days after the deal was announced in January, President Joe Biden's administration said it would withhold $130 million in military aid, or 10 percent of Egypt's total, unless it addressed US human rights concerns.
The Pentagon said the deal to sell 12 C-130J-30 Super Hercules aircraft includes support equipment, spare parts and technical support.
Lockheed Martin is the main contractor for the aircraft deal.(Reuters)
The Intercept: In the Ukraine war, the UAE beat its oil interests with Russia over its military alliance with America
London - The Intercept published an article by Ken Kleppenstein, in which he said that the United Arab Emirates preferred solidarity with oil producers over its military alliances.
Amid international condemnation of Russia's aggression against Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin found time on March 1 to contact a proven peer, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed . And based on the version published by the Russians, and contained in a Bloomberg report, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed affirmed “Russia’s right to defend itself,” an unusual concession to Moscow. This citation was deleted as a note in the new version of the report, “Amendment from the fifth paragraph in the Emirati statement.” And when the UAE issued its statement about the call, the phrase “the right to self-defense” did not appear in it. Bloomberg adopted the Emirati statement.
With the possibility of the Russians distorting what was stated in the call, the Emirati sympathy with Moscow over the conflict in Ukraine is not a secret. The UAE-owned newspaper, The National, asked its foreign staff not to refer to the Russian attack on Ukraine as an “invasion,” according to an internal memo published by British Daily Telegraph reporter Campbell McDermid, and “got it because foreign office workers were frustrated by the interference.” In Tahrir,” he was quoted by “The Intercept,” adding, “I imagine that the Minister of Foreign Affairs or a similar figure gave direction to the editor-in-chief, Mina Al-Araibi.” When Al-Araibi was asked to comment on the note, she did not deny its existence, but referred the reporter to an article published by the newspaper the day before the publication of the McDermid report, in which the newspaper described the Russian attack as an invasion.
The call from Putin came less than a week after Abu Dhabi abstained from a vote in the Security Council in favor of a resolution condemning the Russian invasion. While the world denounced and punished the Russian oligarchs, they find a warm welcome in the Emirates , according to the Wall Street Journal, and Saudi and Emirati officials refused to take calls from US President Joe Biden during the Ukraine crisis.
This came after Saudi Arabia and the UAE cooperated with Russia to increase oil prices, in the form of raising natural gas prices to unprecedented levels for several years and got a reward through profits, which would undermine the impact of a set of sanctions imposed against Moscow.
The writer comments that these moves are the latest in the rapprochement between the UAE and Russia, indicating a realignment that threatens to overturn decades of warm relations between Washington and Abu Dhabi. A former diplomat and researcher at the site's think tank told the site that US diplomats are sure that Russia and the UAE reached an agreement before voting on a US-backed draft resolution on February 25 under which the UAE would abstain from voting against Russia on matters related to Ukraine in exchange for Russia's support for the UAE on matters related to Yemen . The UAE ambassador to the United Nations, Lana Zaki Nusseibeh, denied that such a barter took place.
On February 28, Russia supported the UAE in a Security Council resolution declaring the Houthi movement in Yemen as terrorist. Richard Mittens, a spokesman for the UAE government, declined to respond to a number of calls from the site for comment. A number of diplomats the site spoke with expressed reactions ranging from disappointment to betrayal from the UAE. The site quoted a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Democratic Representative from Minnesota Ilhan Omar as saying, “It is time to dispense with the illusion that sees the UAE as a reliable security partner for the United States. And between their transfer of US-origin weapons to terrorist groups in Yemen to their refusal to denounce Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine, it is clear time and time again that they do not share values or security with us.”
“The Biden administration should have halted Trump’s F-35 sales and rallies based on human rights and the protection of civilians in Yemen,” she said. And because they didn't (the administration), I hope this will give them an impetus to stop it at once," and she was referring to the arms deal approved by the Trump administration to sell the UAE advanced military equipment, including the F-35, worth $23 billion. A prominent Democratic aide said the same, "When we look at the sheer amount of support and even respect that the United States has given the UAE, their abstention is disappointing."
In addition to the Congress, national security officials expressed their anger at the UAE’s position in the Security Council “by supporting Russia’s position in Ukraine, the UAE shows the astonishing ingratitude of America, which has provided security for the Gulf in the past fifty years,” says Robert Baer, a retired CIA officer and “ Do not forget the blood that the Americans sacrificed.”
The US military acts as a guarantor for the UAE against regional threats from enemies such as Iran and the rebels in Yemen. And when, in January, the Houthis launched missiles against military bases in the UAE, threatening the lives of American soldiers there, they were the ones who intercepted the Houthi missiles. This was part of American help, sending a squadron of F-22 fighters, the destroyer USS Cole, and personal visits from the commander of Central Command, General Kenneth McKenzie, and as a senior US official commented, “It wasn't a bad deal for them.” My chief to the ceasefire,” noting that the Gulf people skillfully manipulate in a way that suits their interests or play the violin as they like.
The writer believes that tensions are not new with the Gulf state, which spends lavishly on public relations firms that employ former US officials, which has protected it from criticism despite its human rights record, including war crimes in Yemen and the imprisonment of activists at home. With regard to the UN Security Council, the UAE has used a number of strategic experts in communications in order to defend its interests at the United Nations, according to a diplomat who worked at the United Nations. Records of disclosures of work for foreign countries registered with the Ministry of Justice confirmed that the UAE signed agreements with the Glover Park Group, a public relations firm based in Washington and operated by a number of former Democratic officials. The UAE has hired former officials for Samantha Power, who runs the US Agency for International Development. In a series of appeals, the Biden administration went as far as to clarify its position on Ukraine.
On January 4, a month before the invasion, Foreign Minister Anthony Blinken spoke with his UAE counterpart and assured him of the importance of the Ukrainian file for the administration. On February 23, a day before the invasion, the UAE foreign minister praised the “strength and strength” of the relationship with Moscow and its interest in expanding cooperation. The next day, Blinken spoke with the UAE Foreign Minister and denounced the Russian act as a "planned, unjustified or provocative invasion against Ukraine and the importance of building a strong international response to support Ukraine's sovereignty through the UN Security Council."
Despite this, the UAE decided on February 25 to abstain from voting alongside China, which angered US officials. On February 28, the UAE foreign minister spoke with his Russian counterpart, and they discussed “the development of comprehensive Russian-UAE relations.”
Trista Parsi of the Quincy Institute said, “The UAE’s vote in the Security Council revealed that the US-Emirati relationship is a one-way street, in which the United States makes huge sacrifices to this small dictatorial country and does not even get solidarity from it in the UN Security Council. And “in the end, the Emiratis who are looking for their national interests are not to blame, but we are blamed because we are not looking for our interests.”
Tags:
AMERICA UPDATE