Memorializing Sheikh Khalifa, transition, and restoring US-UAE relations & More News Here

MENASource

May 14, 2022 • 12:52 pm ET

Memorializing Sheikh Khalifa, transition, and restoring US-UAE relations

By
R. Clarke Cooper

The passing of the President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan (1948-2022), happens at a outstanding time of development and maturation for a sovereign UAE. The demise of Sheikh Khalifa and the designation of his successor happens through the fiftieth anniversary yr of formal diplomatic relations with the United States, marking a long time of accelerating safety cooperation important to supporting US pursuits within the Middle East. 

It can be at a time when bilateral relations are “going through a stress test,” because the UAE’s ambassador to the US, Yousef Al Otaiba, famous in March. His feedback had been made after Emirati officers noticed the US response to Houthi assaults in February as weak, and US officers bristled on the UAE abstaining from the United Nations Security Council vote throughout the identical month to sentence the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In the years since its founding as an unbiased state, the UAE has sought to be a pacesetter within the Middle East and North Africa. Now on this time of transition, it’s incumbent upon the US to readily affirm its long-term relationship with the UAE and strongly reaffirm its shared strategic commitments to advertise peace and safety, assist mutual financial development, and broaden instructional alternatives.

Bridging the early days of statehood to the fashionable outward-facing UAE, Sheikh Khalifa was the eldest son of Sheikh Zayed, who was the UAE’s first chief after the federation of the seven Emirates in 1971. 

Like his father, Sheikh Khalifa held probably the most highly effective place among the many seven semi-autonomous city-states extending alongside the strategic coasts of the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. The place of presidency derived from his standing as hereditary ruler of Abu Dhabi, the UAE’s largest and wealthiest emirate, and house to the federal capital. As President of the UAE, Sheikh Khalifa oversaw intense financial development and managed a big international monetary disaster in 2008. The world’s tallest constructing, the Burj Khalifa, stays a tangible expression of commemorating his serving to Dubai overcome crushing debt over a decade in the past.

On May 14, the Federal Supreme Council, which is comprised of the rulers of the Emirate, unanimously elected and introduced the successor to the late Sheikh Khalifa, his youthful half-brother, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed—who has served because the UAE’s surrogate chief in a regency position since 2014 when Sheikh Khalifa suffered a stroke—is to formally succeed him as president and take the helm of OPEC’s third largest oil producer. The UAE Constitution states the Supreme Council has one month to convene and select the successor to the position of president, however that call occurred inside twenty-four hours. Following the council determination, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed is more likely to identify a brand new crown prince to exchange himself. Traditionally, the selection would most likely be one in all his half-brothers, however he may as an alternative select his personal eldest son, Khalid.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, or in US interagency parlance, “MBZ,” has historically regarded the US as his nation’s most necessary ally. Through the relationships he developed throughout US presidential administrations, MBZ concluded that solidarity among the many UAE, Israel, and the US towards rising pernicious threats from Iran that was crucial to the safety of every nation in addition to the area. In half due to the belief constructed up through the years with the US, MBZ led the UAE’s determination to normalize relations with Israel by means of the Abraham Accords in 2020. Not all of MBZ’s adventurous regional insurance policies, nevertheless, have turned out as profitable. His determination to finish UAE fight operations in Yemen—concluding in February 2020, after 5 years of preventing—got here regardless of the Houthi risk remaining acute and the navy battle with the rebels, a stalemate. 

As the UAE enters the introduced forty-day interval of mourning with a three-day suspension of labor in all ministries and the personal sector on May 13, together with flags to be flown at half-staff, expressions of condolences are being made around the globe by varied heads of state and public figures. A state funeral with the requisite honors is more likely to happen, and such an august public ceremonial mourning is an acceptable alternative for the US to greatest specific respect and convey dedication to its Emirati mates. 

To convey condolences, President Joe Biden will ship the compulsory mourning delegation to the UAE inclusive of cupboard ranked officers, as protocol dictates, however the president must also be there. In this a part of the world, nationwide safety concerns usually hinge on private relationships. A presidential go to would go a good distance towards restoring the strong bonds between the US and UAE. The proverbial “showing the flag” isn’t sufficient underneath present circumstances. 

Considerations for the funding in a long-term relationship require a considerate and tactile response. Commemorating the deep relationship with the UAE, the president of the United States must be current, and personally honor the legacy of Sheikh Khalifa with condolences in addition to congratulations to Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed. The picture of President Biden in Abu Dhabi would function a visual dedication towards rising the US-UAE relationship, affirm shut bilateral coordination, and clarify the intent to safe additional cooperation with the now successor of the late Sheikh Khalifa. 

R. Clarke Cooper is a nonresident senior fellow on the Atlantic Council, former assistant secretary on the US Department of State, a former senior intelligence officer for the US Joint Special Operations Command, and a fight veteran.

Further studying

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Defusing Saudi Arabia-UAE tensions by means of financial rebalancing

MENASource
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By figuring out the financial imbalances contributing to the breakdown, recalibration is feasible to rebuild a extra balanced relationship that circumvents the zero-sum recreation that has given rise to the Riyadh-Abu Dhabi dispute.

Image: The flag of the United Arab Emirates flies at half-mast among the many downtown metropolis skyline after the demise of the nation’s President Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, May 13, 2022. REUTERS/Christopher Pike

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