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Senior U.S. and United Arab Emirates officials reaffirmed their “strategic partnership” after talks in Washington on Saturday, days after the Gulf state revealed it had stopped participating in a U.S.-led multinational naval task force.
U.S. national security adviser Jack Sullivan told his Emirati counterpart Sheikh Tanub bin Zayed Al Nahyan that the Biden administration was committed to deterring threats to the UAE, according to a White House readout of the meeting.
The talks came weeks after Iranian forces seized an oil tanker transshipped from a UAE port.
This week, the Gulf state said it had withdrawn from the Joint Maritime Force, a 38-person task force led by the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet based in Bahrain, two months ago.
It said in a statement that the decision was “the result of our ongoing assessment of effective security cooperation with all our partners”.
The move was seen as a further sign of the UAE’s longstanding frustration with the level of U.S. military support for the Gulf region.
A person with knowledge of the matter said the UAE was confused by the task force’s mandate and rules of engagement.
“For example, what is [the force] What was it doing when it saw Iranian forces intercept a ship transiting through a UAE port? The man said. “The purpose of the task force is to protect maritime navigation and safety, and unless it has a mandate to intervene, you can’t do that.” “
The U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet declined to comment.
Sheikh Tanon “praised” the U.S.-UAE defense partnership after holding talks with Sullivan, the report said.
Relations between the United States and the UAE have been strained since January 2021, when Yemen’s Houthi rebels allied with Iran launched missile and drone attacks on Abu Dhabi.
The UAE leader believes Washington was slow to respond to the attack on the Gulf capital compared with other partners such as France.
Abu Dhabi saw the response as further evidence of what it sees as a decade of U.S. disengagement from the region and the unpredictability of policy.
The UAE has also been disappointed by the U.S. response to destructive attacks on commercial shipping in the Gulf of Oman in 2019 and missile attacks on critical Saudi oil infrastructure, which were blamed on Iran.
The Islamic republic has hijacked merchant ships in and around the Gulf in recent years.
The two sides have worked to develop a stronger security partnership since the attacks on Abu Dhabi two years ago, but no agreement has yet been reached.
As the UAE seeks an agreement around security protections, Washington has raised questions about Abu Dhabi’s close ties with other major powers, including China, which is becoming a more influential power in the oil-rich region.
In March, Beijing brokered a deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran under which the two regional powers agreed to restore diplomatic ties.
The UAE has also attracted many Russians and their assets following the Ukraine war, raising concerns in the West that the Gulf’s financial capital could become a safe haven for sanctions violations.
“Relationships with the U.S. are fine and both sides are committed to continuing to advance that relationship,” said the source.
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