DUBAI — US President Joe Biden will host United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed on the White Home on Monday, amid rising Emirati considerations over the continued conflict in Gaza. This marks Sheikh Mohammed’s first go to to Washington since turning into president in 2022.
In response to the White Home, the leaders are set to debate a spread of key matters, together with the Gaza battle, cooperation on synthetic intelligence, the disaster in Sudan, and several other different regional and international points.
The go to comes because the United Arab Emirates is starting to indicate elevated frustration with Israel’s dealing with of the Gaza disaster, because the battle drags on ad infinitum and a mounting dying toll, analysts say.
Abu Dhabi normalized relations with Israel in 2020 after signing the Abraham Accords. However the relations have soured with the present Israeli authorities over the Gaza conflict. Frustration with the shortage of a foreseeable conclusion to the battle, now in its eleventh month, got here to the fore when the UAE’s international minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, posted on the social platform X that “the UAE shouldn’t be ready to help a day after the conflict in Gaza with out the institution of a Palestinian state.”
الامارات غير مستعدة لدعم اليوم التالي من الحرب في غزة دون قيام دولة فلسطينية
— عبدالله بن زايد (@ABZayed) September 14, 2024
The submit, which was considered over 1.8 million occasions, was a poignant assertion meant to succeed in a wider viewers, with extra impression than an official assertion, retired professor of political science Abdulkhaleq Abdullah advised Al-Monitor.
“I feel that is an expression of frustration with each the Israelis and the Individuals. They’re speaking an excessive amount of, however they don’t seem to be doing the stroll,” he added.
On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman additionally echoed the sentiment throughout a session of the Shura Council, the nation’s deliberative meeting.
“The dominion is not going to cease its tireless work towards the institution of an unbiased Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital, and we affirm that the dominion is not going to set up diplomatic relations with Israel with out that,” he stated.
Israel and Saudi Arabia had been working towards a normalization deal, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying they had been on “the cusp” of an settlement simply previous to the Oct. 7 Hamas assaults and the next conflict in Gaza.
Al-Aqsa considerations
The UAE’s place follows a gentle enhance in rhetoric amid continued impatience over the Israeli authorities led by Netanyahu and his right-wing allies.
The UAE, together with its Gulf allies, strongly condemned feedback by Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s minister for nationwide safety, on plans to construct a synagogue throughout the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, identified to Jews as Temple Mount, one of many holiest locations in each Islam and Judaism.
Israeli right-wing incursions on the mosque advanced led by Ben-Gvir have preoccupied discussions Sheikh Abdullah has had along with his Jordanian counterpart, Ayman al-Safadi. Jordan oversees the administration of the holy websites by means of a longtime endowment often called Waqf. The UAE has repeatedly known as on Israel to rein in settler exercise, respect the historic and authorized standing of Jerusalem, and for the institution of a Palestinian state.
‘Day after’ eventualities
Sheikh Abdullah’s newest touch upon not being concerned within the “day after” the Gaza battle doesn’t particularly underpin a shift in pondering, Afshin Molavi, senior fellow on the Overseas Coverage Institute at Johns Hopkins College College of Superior Worldwide Research, advised Al-Monitor.
“The UAE doubtless doesn’t wish to be ready to be engaged in post-conflict reconstruction except there’s a viable, internationally accepted Palestinian state,” he stated.
“In any case, if such a state doesn’t exist, the opportunity of future battle exists, regardless of how a lot reconstruction has been achieved,” he added.
The UAE shouldn’t be concerned in mediating a cease-fire in Gaza. The US, Qatar and Egypt are appearing as mediators between Israel and Hamas.
Humanitarian aid
Whereas Abu Dhabi has not performed a political function in bringing the battle to a halt, it has — by means of the Abraham Accords signed with Israel in 2020 — performed an lively function in humanitarian help aid.
The UAE hosts near 2,000 wounded and sick from Gaza, in addition to their households, in a humanitarian metropolis within the nation’s capital.
By means of its working relationship with Israeli authorities, the UAE frequently evacuates the wounded and injured from Gaza, although its efforts have come underneath mounting challenges following Israel’s closure of the Rafah border.
Former US diplomat and negotiator Dennis Ross famous that Sheikh Abdullah’s strongly worded assertion might be a sign that, ought to cease-fire talks show profitable, the UAE may play a job.
“This might be merely calling consideration to what’s going to make it simpler for the UAE to play and fulfill a job,” Ross advised Al-Monitor.
Publish-conflict rebuilding
Israel exhibits no indicators of slowing its operation in Gaza, even because the dying toll within the enclave climbed above 41,000 with greater than 90,000 injured, in line with native well being authorities.
Israel can be now within the third week of a large-scale operation within the occupied West Financial institution — its greatest within the territory for the reason that early 2000s.
Talks a few “day after” future for Gaza and Palestine are “misplaced,” Molavi stated.
“We must be speaking about ‘the era after.’ The destruction is huge and unimaginable,” he stated.
“It’s doubtless that the UAE in addition to different regional actors perceive the huge generational scale of the rebuilding course of and possibly needed to make sure that, at minimal, a viable Palestinian state can be wanted,” he added.
