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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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United Arab Emirates
Index
Since obtaining full independence at the end of 1971,
security concerns have been a major focus of the UAE's
foreign
relations. Indeed, it was uncertain in the early 1970s
whether
the UAE would endure as a viable state. Saudi Arabia, for
example, refused to recognize the new federation because
of an
unresolved border dispute with Abu Dhabi over the Al
Buraymi
Oasis. Iran and Oman also contested UAE claims to certain
territories. In addition, the discovery of extensive
petroleum
deposits in the 1960s prompted Iraq and other states to
challenge
the legitimacy of the UAE's ruling families. Because the
UAE was
a relatively small state, its leaders recognized that
defending
the country's security from both internal and external
threats
depended on skillful management of diplomatic relations
with
other countries, particularly larger and more powerful
neighbors
such as Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.
A principal goal of the UAE's foreign policy has been
to
contain the spillover effects of various regional crises.
For
example, during the initial years of UAE independence, a
major
insurrectionary movement threatened to overthrow the
government
in neighboring Oman. This movement also supported a group
known
as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman and the
Arab
Gulf, which aimed at establishing a republican regime in
the UAE.
During the mid-1970s, repercussions of the escalating
civil war
in Lebanon reverberated throughout the Persian Gulf.
Subsequently, the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the civil
war and
Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, and the Iran-Iraq War
all
affected the UAE in various ways.
Despite its criticisms of United States policies toward
the
Palestinians, the UAE perceives its evolving relationship
with
the United States as providing a measure of protection
from these
crises. Thus, by 1990-91, when it joined with the United
States
in the military effort to force Iraq out of Kuwait, the
UAE
already had become a de facto member of the United States
strategic umbrella over the region.
The Iraqi invasion and occupation of Kuwait were a
shock to
the UAE. Prior to that crisis, the UAE had tried to
demonstrate
solidarity on inter-Arab issues. In particular, it had
supported
the cause of Palestinian Arabs, both within the League of
Arab
States (Arab League), of which it was a member, and within
international forums. In practical terms, this meant that
the UAE
did not recognize Israel. When Egypt signed a separate
peace
agreement with Israel in 1979, the UAE joined other Arab
states
in breaking diplomatic relations with Egypt. The UAE did
not,
however, expel the thousands of Egyptian workers in the
UAE or
interfere with their transfer of remittances home. For the
UAE,
the crisis over Kuwait demonstrated a lack of Arab unity
on a
critical Arab issue. The UAE joined the Arab states that
opposed
the Iraqi invasion and supported the use of force to
compel
Iraq's withdrawal of troops.
More fundamental for the UAE, this crisis exposed the
failure
of the GCC, of which the UAE had been a founding member in
1981,
as a deterrent collective security organization. Although
it was
not prepared to abandon the GCC--it derived other benefits
from
this alliance with Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi
Arabia--the UAE believed that new security arrangements
were
necessary. The UAE initially supported expanding the GCC
framework to include formal military ties with Egypt and
Syria.
When this option seemed unrealistic, the UAE concluded
that a
security relationship with the United States should be
continued.
Consequently, negotiations began during the summer of 1991
and
continued for more than a year. In late 1992, officials of
both
countries signed an agreement that permitted the United
States to
use some UAE bases temporarily and to pre-position
supplies on
UAE territory.
The negotiations with the United States may have been a
factor in the UAE's 1992 problems with Iran, a country
that
opposed a continuing United States military presence in
the
region. Like Iraq, Iran is a large neighbor--and a much
closer
one--with a recent history of policies that discomfited
the UAE.
Throughout the 1980s, the UAE had striven with difficulty
to
maintain neutrality in the Iran-Iraq War. That conflict
was also
a source of internal UAE tension because Abu Dhabi tended
to
support Iraq while Dubayy was more sympathetic to Iran.
After the
war ended in 1988, Iran appeared to single out the UAE for
special and friendly attention. By 1992 the UAE was the
Arab
country with which Iran had the closest commercial
relations.
Thus, the crisis that erupted in April 1992 over disputed
islands
in the Persian Gulf seemed unexpected.
The dispute with Iran over the sovereignty of three
small
islands--Abu Musa, Greater Tumb, and Lesser Tumb--had been
dormant for twenty years. It was rekindled in 1992 when
Iranian
officials on Abu Musa refused to permit UAE contract
workers to
disembark, in apparent contravention of a shared
sovereignty
agreement. Iran had claimed all three islands in 1970,
before the
UAE was formed. On the eve of independence in 1971, the
amirate
of Sharjah, which had jurisdiction over Abu Musa, accepted
an
agreement negotiated between London and Tehran that
permitted
Iran to establish a military garrison in the northern part
of the
island and allowed Sharjah to administer the civilian
population
living in the southern part. The agreement provided for
Iran and
Sharjah to share the proceeds from an offshore oil field
but
otherwise left the question of ultimate sovereignty to be
resolved at some unspecified future time.
Greater Tumb and Lesser Tumb are two uninhabited
islands
claimed by Ras al Khaymah but occupied by Iran since 1971.
Unlike
Sharjah, Ras al Khaymah never accepted an Iranian claim to
the
islands and protested Britain's failure to interfere with
Iran's
occupation. Indeed, it was the amirate's anger over the
1971
occupation that caused it to refrain from joining the UAE
for
several months. In the midst of the 1992 crisis over Abu
Musa,
Ras al Khaymah resurrected its grievance over Greater Tumb
and
Lesser Tumb, thus enflaming an already delicate situation.
At the
end of the year, Iran and Sharjah quietly agreed to a
restoration
of the status quo ante the crisis, but the incidents left
the UAE
feeling wary of Iranian intentions.
In 1993 the UAE maintained relatively cordial relations
with
countries outside the Middle East. It was a member of the
United
Nations and its specialized agencies. It also was a member
of the
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and the
Organization of the Islamic Conference.
* * *
The body of scholarly literature on the UAE gradually
increased in the 1980s. A recent book, Malcolm Peck's
The
United Arab Emirates, provides an excellent account of
UAE
society, politics, and economy. Hassan Hamdan al-Alkim's
The
Foreign Policy of the United Arab Emirates gives a
solid
introduction to the subject. The history of the region
from World
War I until independence is presented with insight by
Rosemarie
Said Zahlan in her book, The Origins of the United Arab
Emirates. A.O. Taryam's The Establishment of the
United
Arab Emirates, 1950-85 gives a detailed discussion of
the
years immediately before and after the UAE's creation.
There are also informative chapters about the UAE in
several
earlier books, including Ali Mohammad Khalifa's The
United
Arab Emirates: Unity in Fragmentation and Enver
Khoury's
The United Arab Emirates: Its Political System and
Politics. (For further information and complete
citations,
see
Bibliography.)
Data as of January 1993
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