The tiny Gulf nation of the United Arab Emirates has long been known to punch above its weight internationally. With a native population of about one million and in possession of the world’s seventh largest oil reserves, this is certainly achievable. Ever ambitious and forward-thinking, the Emirates also serves as a financial, trade and tourism hub for the region. A recent report this month has shown that the Emiratis have also excelled in running a “vast and immensely influential” lobbying and PR campaign in Washington, which shapes US policy and helps to ensure that the global reputation of the UAE remains intact, whilst hiding its indiscretions. However, unlike other powerful lobbies, it lacks organic, grassroots support and, therefore, legitimacy.
“The UAE lobby in the USA, UK and France works relentlessly in order to cultivate support for their military adventures abroad, particularly in Yemen and Libya, and in order to whitewash their widespread and systematic human rights abuses at home, where a complete crackdown on civil society has been taking place since the Arab Spring. This aggressive lobbying ensures that the UAE can continue to act with impunity,” rights group ICFUAE told MEMO.
Although the ailing Khalifah Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan is President of the UAE, his half-brother Mohammed Bin Zayed has been de facto ruler for the past decade, taking an even more active role since President Khalifah’s stroke in 2014. One implication of this leadership change has been an aggressive foreign policy which includes interventionism in regional affairs, representing a departure from the wise diplomacy of his father and founder of the UAE, the late Sheikh Zayed (1918-2004).
A similar development was replicated in neighbouring Saudi Arabia under Mohammed Bin Salman after he was made Crown Prince by King Salman in 2017. Like his mentor Mohammed Bin Zayed, the Saudi Prince is considered widely to be in charge of the day to day running of the Kingdom. Spurred on by perceived US overtures to Iran via the 2015 nuclear deal, inaction in Syria and abandonment of Egyptian ally Hosni Mubarak to democratic forces ushering in Muslim Brotherhood rule, the Saudis realised that America was no longer wholly reliable for their security and stability and decided to take a more assertive role in Washington, as unprecedented as that may be. The ongoing Qatar blockade was also initiated under the pretext of ending Qatari support for the Muslim Brotherhood and relations with Iran.
The most audacious albeit disastrous of joint Saudi and UAE interventions to date, of course, is the war in Yemen, embarked upon in an attempt to push back the Houthi takeover of the capital Sanaa and other northern provinces, seen through the prism of a zero-sum war against Iran, which has fostered relations with the Shia Zaydi movement there over the years. What is little-publicised and less known, however, is that despite being labelled the “Saudi-led” war in Yemen or blockade against Qatar, these acts were first sold to Washington by Mohammed Bin Zayed, who is really the chief architect, having encouraged his protégé Bin Salman to proceed with this assertive policy. Bin Zayed is no stranger to Washington, having fostered relations there as early as the Gulf War.
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In the aftermath of the Khashoggi murder a year ago, the Saudis have become a pariah, even in some Washington circles, having been dropped by lobby and PR firms while some think-tanks have turned down funding. As a report by the Centre for International Policy (CIP) has noted, though, the UAE has managed to enjoy its privileged status as a staunch US ally, in spite of its military role in Yemen and “abhorrent human rights record”. This is largely due to the powerful, influential Emirati lobby and PR machine in America, which feeds into the soft-power of the UAE as a progressive, cultured, postmodern state.
Global News 
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