UAE Foreign Minister Meets With Assad From Syria, US Criticizes Visit To ‘Dictator’

The UAE Foreign Minister met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Tuesday in a sign of improving ties between Assad and a US-allied Gulf state, prompting American complaints of efforts to rehabilitate a “brutal dictator.”

Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan is the highest ranking Emirati dignitary to visit Syria in the decade since the outbreak of a civil war in which several Arab states mainly backed Sunni Muslim insurgents against Assad.

The visit is seen as a sign of regional efforts to end Assad’s diplomatic isolation as Syria grapples with a spiraling economic crisis caused by years of conflict and exacerbated by Western sanctions.

“President Assad received the UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan” and an accompanying delegation, the Syrian state news agency SANA said.

“They discussed the bilateral relations between the two sister countries and the ways to develop cooperation in different sectors that are of common interest,” he added.

Sheikh Abdullah underlined in his meeting with Assad “the UAE’s enthusiasm for Syria’s security, stability and unity,” the UAE state news agency WAM said.

He also highlighted the “support of the United Arab Emirates for all efforts made to end the Syrian crisis, consolidate stability in the country and meet the aspirations of the brother Syrian people,” WAM reported.

The United States criticizes the expression of ‘support’

But Washington, an ally of the United Arab Emirates, was quick to express concern over the signal sent by the meeting.

“This administration will not express any support for efforts to normalize or rehabilitate Bashar al-Assad, who is a brutal dictator,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters without referring to him as president.

The UAE severed ties as Syria’s crackdown on national protests demanding regime change was turning into a devastating war that has since left nearly half a million dead.

Syria is backed by the Gulf state’s regional rival Iran, but in December 2018 the UAE reopened its embassy in Damascus, suggesting an effort to bring the Syrian government back into the Arab fold.

The move was followed by the UAE’s call in March this year for Syria to return to the Arab League, having been a key sponsor of its suspension in November 2011.

Back to the ‘Arab fold’

Egypt, home to the pan-Arab body, said on Tuesday that relations with Syria should eventually be restored, but that Damascus must first address concerns such as the humanitarian effects of the war.

Addressing the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said Syria needed to “show greater restraint in the way it regains the confidence of both the region and its own internal dynamics. “.

Damascus is struggling to secure international aid – that is, from the oil-rich Arab regional neighbors who supported the opposition in the early days of the war.

Last month, the UAE Ministry of Economy said it agreed with Syria on “future plans to improve economic cooperation and explore new sectors.”

A ministry statement said the UAE was Syria’s most prominent global trading partner, accounting for 14 percent of Syria’s foreign trade.

Also last month, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the de facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates, discussed developments in Syria with Assad in the second call between the two leaders since March of the year. last.

‘Assad’s life preserver’

Analyst Nicholas Heras of the Newlines Institute in Washington said that “the United Arab Emirates is Assad’s lifeline” in light of crippling Western sanctions.

“Damascus needs the Emirati channel … to eventually access critical funds and commercial acumen for an Assad-led reconstruction process in Syria,” Heras said.

The UAE is not the only Arab country to come close to the Assad government.

In October, Assad called King Abdullah II of Jordan for the first time since the conflict began in Syria.

The two neighbors had reopened an important border crossing days before.

The UAE is one of the six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council that took a tough stance against Damascus in 2012 and eventually recognized an opposition umbrella group as the representative of Syria.

Some regional powers see the warming towards Damascus as a way to alienate Syria from the exclusive regional influence of Iran, a staunch supporter of the Assad government that has expanded its military presence in Syria over the course of the conflict.

( Jowharwith AFP and REUTERS)