Umm Muhammed Umar

Radio Islam interviewed James Dorsey, a senior fellow at Singapore’s S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, and the Middle East Institute, on the Middle East Report.

Senior US officials have visited Saudi Arabia, and Saudi Arabia emphasizes relations with Israel once there’s a resolution to the Palestinian issue. Dorsey said that relations between Saudi Arabia and the United States were strained, particularly now, when the United States would like to see the Saudis pumping more oil to reduce prices and help Europe reduce its dependence on Russian energy. The brother of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Khalid bin Salman, who is now the Deputy Defence Minister, visited Washington this week, to hold high level conversations with the Secretary of Defence, the Secretary of State, the head of the Central Command, with all of this happening against the background of a possible visit in June, to Saudi Arabia by US President Joe Biden. Dorsey said, “Keep in mind that relations between Saudi Arabia and the US have also been strained because Biden during his election campaign, called Saudi Arabia a pariah state, and has since refused to engage with the Crown Prince, because of his alleged involvement in the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.”

Separately, the UAE, instead of Qatar and Turkey, have gained the Afghan airport contracts. Dorsey said that from the moment that the Americans started withdrawing from Kabul last August, it was assumed Qatar and Turkey would take over management of the three international airports, particularly the Kabul airport. He said, “And that’s management in terms of security, as well as in terms of a lot of the know-how that apparently the Taliban don’t have.” Qatar was particularly instrumental in helping the Americans through what had been a very bungled withdrawal last August. It also had better relations with the Taliban than the UAE. Dorsey said, “Qatar facilitated the withdrawal agreement between the Taliban and the United States, (and) hosted a Taliban negotiating delegation based in Doha.” He explained, however, that the Qatari’s have also been much more critical of the Afghans, then have the Emiratis, especially with regard to “the lack of inclusiveness of the Taliban, and the increasingly strict restrictions that the Taliban are putting on women.” Dorsey said, “In fact, in March at the Doha forum, the Emir of Qatar, open the forum by giving an award to an Afghan women’s organization, so that’s why now the UAE rather than Qatar has gotten the airport contract.”

Meanwhile, Turkey had invaded northern Syria, in 2019, to try and counter US backed Kurds in the region. At the time, US President Donald Trump warned Turkey that he would destroy Turkey’s economy, if Turkey continued with this. Sweden and Finland imposed a weapons embargo on Turkey. Sweden and Finland have since applied for NATO membership, but Turkey is complicating the application for membership. According to Dorsey, Turkey could be complicating its relationship with the United States again, because it’s saying “it’s going to basically finish off now what had not been able to finish off in 2019, in terms of attacking and controlling the Kurds in northern Syria”.

Finally, food delivery drivers in the UAE are striking, because of rising prices and rising inflation. Dorsey said that foreigners and workers were the majority of Dubai’s population base, with just 10 to 15% of Emiratis part of the population. He said that the ruling regime was autocratic, and forbade any form of protest. Dorsey said, “So the fact that you’ve had not only the strike itself, but rather than what happened in the past, where striking workers were detained, expelled, there were police crackdowns on the on the strikes, the company is (now) actually negotiating the demands of the drivers.” He said, “And that sets a precedent, which ultimately, I would doubt that the Emirati authorities would like to see go forward.”