(Abu Dhabi) U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris arrived in the United Arab Emirates on Monday, leading a large delegation including Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, to meet with the wealthy country’s new president. Gulf, Mohammed bin Zayed.
Posted at 9:58 a.m.
Kamala Harris must meet with the man nicknamed “MBZ”, elected president on Saturday by the rulers of the seven emirates that make up this state, including Dubai and the capital Abu Dhabi.
Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed already ruled the country de facto before officially succeeding his sick half-brother, Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, who died on Friday.
“The United States takes the strength of its relationship and partnership with the United Arab Emirates very seriously,” said Mr.me Harris in a statement from the White House.
“So we are going there to express our condolences, but also our commitment to strengthening this relationship,” she insisted.
World dignitaries have been flocking to Abu Dhabi since Saturday to congratulate the new president of the small, oil-rich state that has become a key player in the Middle East in recent years.
French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson are among the leaders who made the trip this weekend.
Tight relationships
The American delegation arriving on Monday includes several other senior American officials, including Lloyd Austin, Minister of Defense, John Kerry, special envoy for the climate, William Burns, director of the CIA, the main American foreign intelligence agency.
It is the largest visit by US officials to the Gulf, a wealthy region with important partners including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Relations between Washington and the Gulf have nevertheless gone through cold periods in recent years, with the Americans sometimes being accused by some observers of losing interest in the region in favor of their Asian priority.
The US administration, for its part, was scalded by the refusal of the Gulf countries to increase oil production to calm the surge in prices on world markets since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia at the end of February.
At the beginning of March, the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to the United States, Youssef Al Otaïba, had estimated that the relationship between Washington and Abu Dhabi was “tested” while insisting on the desire to revive it in the long term.
“Our relationship with the United States is like any relationship. There are days when she is doing well and days when she is questioned, ”he said at a conference.
Iran too
Close to the United States, the various Gulf powers have also forged important relations with Moscow and Russian President Vladimir Putin, a weighty ally of oil-exporting countries. Neither Saudi Arabia nor the United Arab Emirates support Russian intervention in Ukraine, however.
The two Gulf countries, however, expect more support from the United States on the Yemen file, where the war they are waging against the Houthis, rebels close to Iran, is bogged down even if the establishment of a truce in progress raises timid hopes.
In Morocco, Antony Blinken had met Mohammed ben Zayed at the end of March, assuring that the partnership between the two countries “really counted”.
“We are determined to do everything we can to help you defend yourself effectively […] against Houthi terror attacks,” Blinken said.
The United States is not alone in seeking to reconnect with the United Arab Emirates, as the Gulf country attempts to ease its relations in the region. Mohammed ben Zayed thus welcomed Tamim ben Hamad Al-Thani, emir of Qatar, another Gulf state with which he had broken off relations for a time.
Even Iran, a neighboring rival country, sent its foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, to Abu Dhabi on Monday. According to a press release from the presidency, the Iranian head of state, Ebrahim Raisi, congratulated Mohammed bin Zayed and expressed the hope of a strengthening of relations in “the interest of the two countries”.