Quincy Institute: The UAE dictatorship must be addressed
The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft urged pressure on the Middle East’s dictatorial regimes, led by the UAE, similar to what is happening with Russia.
The institute said in an analytical article that the United States of America sends weapons to Europe to fight for democracy against Putin. In contrast, American weapons that it sells to Arab tyrants help defeat the peoples’ struggle for freedom.
The article stated that the Biden administration was correct in responding to reported Russian atrocities by arming Ukraine to defend itself and equally justified in its position to avoid a direct military confrontation with Putin’s Russia.
In light of the economic and political impact of the Russian war in Ukraine on the Middle East, the people of the Middle East are witnessing many stark contradictions in how President Biden deals with the two regions.
The article explained that Biden pumped billions of dollars worth of weapons of all kinds into Ukraine to help President Volodymyr Zelensky defend his country in its fight for democracy and freedom and reject Putin’s dictatorship and brutal war.
But in the Middle East, Washington has sold billions of weapons to Arab dictators despite their appalling human rights record and the suppression of their own people’s civil liberties.
The article believes that the Biden administration supports Ukraine’s freedom to choose its destiny and the values that it struggles for in the global context of universal values. Still, for the sake of political calculations, it has refrained from expanding the mentality of freedom and liberation itself to include the countries of the Middle East.
President Biden and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken are trying hard to persuade Washington’s closest ally and the largest recipient of American weapons in the region to publicly and forcefully condemn Putin’s terrorist actions in Ukraine.
In reward for their support, the Biden administration has turned a blind eye to the Arab people’s demands for justice and freedom.
However, these diplomatic efforts have shown little success, a sign that Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Israel, and others have rejected the US anti-Putin campaign in the region.
The institute highlighted that Dubai remains a haven for billionaires from the Russian oligarchy. Turkey also welcomes Russian-owned superyachts into its ports.
Despite US pleas to the contrary, Saudi-Russian economic and diplomatic relations are becoming more visible on the global stage.
The promise made by President Biden at his inauguration early last year that human rights should be central to his agenda has been dashed. He continues to pamper Middle Eastern dictators without any real consideration, other than rhetoric, for human rights, civil liberties, and democracy.
The Middle Eastern audience may not be rich or influential, but they are smart enough to know what’s going on. As a friend from the Middle East told me recently, he and his compatriots see little difference in the attitude toward Arab dictators between the Trump and Biden administrations. Trump used rhetoric and deed to woo Arab autocrats. In contrast, Biden used soft power (rhetoric) to extol the virtues of democratic values but expanded complex power support for those same dictators.
Arms sales and military aid worth billions of dollars continue to flow to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt and other Arab and non-Arab states, with little attention being paid to their serial human rights abuses, whether in Saudi Arabia, Egypt or the UAE.
The continuing human tragedy in Yemen is but one example of the stark contradictions in Washington’s approach to the two regions.
The article hopes that the continuous massive infusion of US weapons into Ukraine will help the Ukrainian army defeat Russian aggression.
But on the other hand, it points out that massive US arms sales and aid to Arab countries will enable Arab despots to defeat their peoples’ struggle for freedom and human dignity.
It asserts that moral outrage at Putin’s brutality in Ukraine drives Biden’s mission in that country and bolsters a global sense of hope that war-weary Zelensky will triumph over a tough neighbour.
It added that Arab peoples and pro-freedom activists do not see a glimmer of hope that victory in Ukraine will end the ongoing repression they are subjected to in their country.
It noted that a Ukrainian victory with American help is likely necessary to create a moral dilemma for the Biden administration over Washington’s position on human rights in the Arab world.
While it is true that a foreign power is invading Ukraine and that Arab countries are being violated by their domestic regimes, it makes no difference whether a foreign or local dictator tramples on human rights and democratic values.
He stressed that this differentiation should not be lost on American leaders as they pursued a new strategic model in the Middle East after the Ukraine war.
The so-called Abraham Accords and the developing rapprochement between Israel and the Gulf Arab regimes cannot and should not erase the contradiction between the United States’ costly and deep commitment to human rights in Ukraine and its tepid (primarily rhetorical) advocacy of democratic values in Arab countries.
The article concluded that the high moral path followed by the Biden administration in Ukraine should become the guiding principle for America’s relations with Middle Eastern regimes. The pursuit of political interests should not outweigh the administration’s genuine commitment to democratic ideals in relations with Arab regimes.
