Israel thrusts reluctant UAE into open over defence ties

SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST

For months, the United Arab Emirates had denied Iran’s accusations that it was in league with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or hosting his country’s military personnel.

Then, US ambassador to Israel Mick Huckabee handed Tehran a propaganda gift and Abu Dhabi a diplomatic headache all in a single sentence.

Israel sent Iron Dome air defence batteries to the UAE amid the ongoing war on Iran to help protect it from Iranian attacks, Huckabee confirmed at a conference in Tel Aviv on May 12.

A day later, Netanyahu made the UAE’s headache even worse.

On May 13, his office announced that the Israeli prime minister had secretly flown to the Gulf state in late March – during active bombing campaigns on Iran – to meet UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

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The public recent disclosures “exposed relationships that Abu Dhabi would prefer to manage more discreetly”, said Middle East researcher Guy Burton, adding that among ordinary Emiratis, “there is little genuine public enthusiasm for close ties with Israel”.

Yet the country’s leadership “appears to calculate that the strategic, technological and economic benefits outweigh the reputational damage”, said Burton, who is a visiting fellow with the sectarianism, proxies and de-sectarianism project at Lancaster University in the UK.

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Paradoxically, Burton said that the Emiratis’ public rejection of Netanyahu’s claims “may actually indicate that cooperation is deeper than either side wishes to openly acknowledge”.

“Public distancing and private coordination are not contradictory in Middle Eastern diplomacy,” he said. “They often occur simultaneously.”

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