The US intelligence community apparently found it necessary to produce a classified report outlining the UAE’s “extensive efforts to manipulate the American political system, an American website quoted the Washington Post’s report.
Just Security reported that the report highlights decades of failed US Middle East policy rooted in support for autocrats who repeatedly pursue policies contrary to not only American but universal values and interests, calling for reassessing relations with Saudi Arabia due to its position on the rise in oil prices.
“American support for Middle East autocrats is objectionable from both moral and strategic perspectives. Washington’s Middle East partners are some of the worst human rights abusers in the world. Saudi Arabia and the UAE, specifically, are engaged in widespread abuses at home, and support other autocrats throughout the region engaged in similar activities,” the report added.
The report pointed out that leaders in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, respectively, remain engaged in the war in Yemen, which has resulted in the world’s worst humanitarian crisis and the deaths of at least 377,000 people. “Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE are rated below Russia in Freedom House’s index of political rights and civil liberties, with Riyadh also being ranked below China.”
The report indicated that “the argument typically proffered in defense of the US relationship with these rights abusers is that the ties advance US strategic interests.”
The report stated that hosting US military units in the Gulf region, including missile defense systems; cooperation against terrorism and containing Iran, but what is happening is that Saudi Arabia and the UAE actually destabilize the region and fuel the grievances that lead to extremism.
The report continued, “US foreign policy in the Middle East must be oriented toward establishing real and sustainable regional stability, not the false mirage presented by authoritarians and upheld only through fierce repression.”