A weighty UAE tweet - analysis

The ambassadors of the UAE, Bahrain and Oman were in that White House room in January when US President Donald Trump rolled out his peace plan

By HERB KEINON
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs for the United Arab Emirates, Anwar Gargash (photo credit: REUTERS/NEIL HALL)
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs for the United Arab Emirates, Anwar Gargash
(photo credit: REUTERS/NEIL HALL)
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is threatening, Jordanian King Abdullah II is denouncing, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell is condemning, but the diplomat whose words regarding Israel’s intention to extend sovereignty over parts of the West Bank may have the most impact both in Washington and Jerusalem are those of a United Arab Emirate diplomat: Anwar Gargash.
Gargash, the UAE’s minister of state for foreign affairs, took to Twitter on Monday and called on Israel, in English, to halt its plans.
“Continued talk of annexing Palestinian lands must stop,” he wrote. “Any unilateral Israeli move will be a serious setback for the peace process, undermine Palestinian self-determination and constitute a rejection of the international and Arab consensus towards stability and peace.”
Why was this tweet by Gargash, not exactly a household name outside of the UAE, significant? Because – unlike the reactions of Abbas, Abdullah and Borrell – it was not predictable.
The ambassadors of the UAE, Bahrain and Oman were in that White House room in January when US President Donald Trump rolled out his peace plan that would grant US recognition to an Israeli extension of sovereignty over parts of the West Bank under certain conditions. And those countries did not slam the plan.
In fact, the UAE embassy in Washington put a statement on its website calling the plan “an important starting point for returning to negotiations within an international framework led by the United States.” The UAE ambassador to Washington called the plan “a serious initiative that addresses many of the problems that have emerged over the past years.”
On February 1, prior to an Arab League meeting that predictably rejected the Trump Plan, Gargash argued against reflexive dismissal, and in favor of a “constructive position” that goes beyond the regular condemnations.
And last year Gargash set off a firestorm of criticism in the Muslim world when he said in an interview with the UAE-based newspaper The National that the Arab world made a bad mistake in cutting off dialogue with Israel.
“Many, many years ago, when there was an Arab decision not to have contact with Israel, that was a very, very wrong decision, looking back,” he said. “Because clearly, you have to really dissect and divide between having a political issue and keeping your lines of communication open.”
So neither Gargash nor the UAE are reflexively opposed to the Trump plan.
As a result, Gargash’s tweet now against the annexation move is a signal both to Washington and Jerusalem that the slow process of cooperation between Israel and the Persian Gulf – a cooperation that serves the interests of Israel, the Persian Gulf and Washington in facing off against Iran – could be set back by a move to extend Israeli law over parts of Judea and Samaria. And that message from someone considered a moderate in favor of cooperation with Israel is likely to resonate louder than the predictable responses of Abbas, Abdullah and Borrell.
Gargash’s tweet must also be seen within the context of reports that moderate Sunni states were quietly accepting the annexation idea.
Last week a story in Israel Hayom, widely re-reported in the Arab media, read that despite the staunch and vocal opposition the Muslim world voiced toward the plan, quietly leaders of moderate Sunni states like Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are accepting it and see teaming up with the US and Israel against Iran and its Mideast influence as a greater priority than the Palestinian issue. These countries, according to the report, do not want to endanger ties with Washington or Jerusalem by going to battle over this issue.
On Monday morning, Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki slammed theses states for not denying the report about their tacit approval of the plan. In an interview with the Voice of Palestine, he said that the PA reached out through both official and unofficial channels to the countries mentioned in the article for clear denials, but did not receive any response.
The tweet answers Maliki, as well as those like Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who use fiery rhetoric in favor of the Palestinian cause to build up their stature in the Muslim world.
TRT World – the Turkish state international news channel broadcasting in English that has been described as “a propaganda arm” of Erdogan’s regime”– chided the moderate Sunni countries in a report on its website 10 days ago headlined “a deafening silence over Israeli annexation from Arab leaders.”
“Even as support for the Palestinian cause has remained high amongst the Arab populations of the Middle East, authoritarian leaders of the region have failed to reflect it,” the report read, taking a jab at Turkey’s Persian Gulf rivals like the UAE.
Gargash’s tweet needs to be seen within the context of this intra-Muslim struggle for dominance.