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DUBAI, Dec 10 (Reuters) – Europe’s increased engagement with Gulf Arab states in the face of the Ukraine conflict and energy crunch is encouraging but not enough, a senior United Arab Emirates official said on Saturday. Should be “transactional”.
Many European officials have visited the Gulf countries to secure energy supply Outside of former top supplier Russia after Western sanctions imposed on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
Anwar Gargash, the UAE president’s diplomatic adviser, said: “I am encouraged by what we are hearing, especially from the Germans and others, about renewed engagement with the Gulf, but I warn that this It shouldn’t be transactional.” Abu Dhabi World Policy Conference.
“I think the language is partly self-interested — trying to find new suppliers of gas, new suppliers of oil,” he said. “We need to see action…it has to be long-term and strategic.”
Gargash again called on traditional Western allies to provide “clear” security assurances, especially in response to the Iranian drone threat that Gulf states have long warned about.
Gargash said it wasn’t until the weapons “went into the Ukrainian theater” that they “catapulted” into the spotlight and “suddenly the world rediscovered the problem.”
Western countries accuse Russia of exploiting Iran drone Attack on Ukrainian targets, which Tehran and Moscow deny.
Gulf states have long urged global powers to address their concerns about Iran’s missile and drone programs in order to revive the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, which former U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from in 2018.
“This is an opportunity for all of us to revisit the whole concept,” Gargash said, referring to the Iran nuclear deal.
Gulf states are resisting Western pressure to break with Russia, a member of the OPEC+ coalition of oil producers, which agreed in October to cut production targets.
Some countries, which he did not name, are building relationships with “moral baggage and other interests,” Gargash said, adding that politics must be “more realistic if you want outcomes.”
Reporting by Ghaida Ghantous; Editing by Jane Harvey
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