Asia Times
Saturday May 26, 2018
By Andrew Brennan
(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
The UAE has been a busy little theocratic monarchy with regional
ambitions. It has established a military foothold in northern Somalia,
where Emirati firms have set up commercial ports. It has establisehed a web of bases and armed allies in Yemen and Somalia as a wedge against alleged Islamist and Iranian influence, but quietly, Emirati schemes have greater foresight.
It may promote itself as a stable, open, and somewhat tolerant Muslim country, but what does the security web the UAE is weaving really indicate?
Equally so, Emirati media has been trumpeting the altruistic acts of its leadership in Yemen with articles in the UAE’s The National stating,
“The UAE aspires to achieve peace and stability in the region; it is
neither an occupier nor a troublemaker.” A closer examination can
repudiate the performative, magnanimous image; really it’s not
philanthropy but empire building.
UAE weaves a string of pearls from the Gulf to the Horn
From the war-torn Yemeni mainland to the failed state of Somalia,
both are suffering from Salafists militias, US droning and Emirati
interference under the pretext of security against such Salafist
militants.
In Yemen, the UAE sponsors the secessionist al-Hirak/Southern Movement, now unified and labeled the Southern Transitional Council by the UAE, and has distanced itself from the Hadi government.
The aligned interests between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman
(MBS) and Emirati Crown Prince Mohammad bin Zayed (MBZ) in reshaping the
Middle East offer the UAE an opportunity to re-enter a polarized and
fragmented Yemen. .
As I wrote about the ideological and imperial objectives in Yemen, I mentioned that state-owned Dubai Ports World lost its considerable investments in Yemeni ports, and reportedly, gold mines in southern Yemen and pipelines, when the Saudi-sponsored Hadi government took power.
Abu Dhabi has made concerted efforts to fissure Yemen through
supporting secessionist movements and local but loyal militias in
southern and eastern Yemen, from Aden to Hadramawt Province. Its own
military are deployed at specific ports or “pearls” such as Mocha Port on the Red Sea to Mukalla
in the east, which Emirati-trained southern Yemeni forces captured from
al-Qaeda. It hosts Emirati helicopters, a training center, detention
facility and also a small contingent of US Special Forces.
In Africa the UAE’s more subtle work is ongoing. Raids by Somali
pirates on trade routes along the Horn of Africa helped draw the UAE,
home to the Middle East’s busiest port, into the tangled politics of
Somalia. The UAE decided on exploitative and divisive diplomacy by
deepening ties with the unrecognized breakaway state of Somaliland and
the semi-autonomous Puntland, which seeks a federalized Somali state, by
having state-owned Emirati firms Dubai Port World and P&O Ports sign deals with both in 2016 and 2017.
Dubai Ports World has been building a controversial $422 million regeneration project, which
is home to Emirati soldiers and a military base, in the Port of Berbera
in Somaliland. An unrecognized self-declared state in Somalia,
Somaliland agreed in a tripartite contract with Ethiopia for this
project in a derisive act towards Somalia’s central government in
Mogadishu. The port would be a free trade zone, making it a hub for UAE
activities in the Gulf of Aden and would bolster the Emirati military presence in
Assab Port in Eritrea, already used to support military activities in
Yemen. Each port is being used to further expand Emirati presence, and
even regional dominance.
However, in March this year, 168 Somalian lawmakers outlawed the deal and banned Dubai Port World from Somalia as the deal was “null and void”
because Somalia had not given its sovereign consent and undermined its
unity. The Emirati presence still exists in Berbera though.
Abu Dhabi has also lost a battle to manage the Doraleh Container Terminal in
Djibouti in February, after accusations by the Djibouti government that
Dubai Port World bribed officials to extend the monopoly agreement for
50 years. The London Court of International Arbitration sided with the
company, the terminal and its rail connection that links the Indian
Ocean through the Gulf with Ethiopia and the African heartland is lost
to Abu Dhabi for the moment.
The Emirati interference in a polarized and divided Somalia has seen infrastructure such as a highway to Ethiopia and airport being built in Somaliland, and has garnered consternation from Mogadishu, ending a UAE training mission there in April and causing the seizure of $9.6 million from
a private plane with 47 Emirati officers on board, which had landed at
Mogadishu International Airport from Abu Dhabi, by Somali soldiers.
Mogadishu believed the money was to buy influence inside Somalia, while
the UAE said it was for Somali soldiers’ salaries. Causing further conflagration by hiring 8,000 Ugandan soldiers to be dispatched into Yemen, and 2,000 to Somalia, further infuriating Mogadishu.
The president of the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, as told Reuters
in Dubai that UAE personnel were training local forces to combat piracy
as well as Islamist groups in Yemen or Somalia. Again, did the UAE
consult with Mogadishu before doing this?
Abu Dhabi is doggedly cultivating influence over the Horn of Africa
and Gulf of Aden to expand its naval presence by using Assab in Eritrea,
Mukalla in Yemen, as well as Djibouti, Berbera Port in Somaliland and
Bosasa in Puntland, along with the Port Sudan. All of these ports
stretch from the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean, and are erecting
a “String of Pearls” for an Emirati commercial and energy empire under
the sole auspicious of deterring Iran, and the jewel in this string is
Socotra.
Commandeering an Eden in the Aden Gulf
The UAE seems to have commandeered a haven lying in the laneway
between the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean. The Yemeni island of
Socotra, a UNESCO paradise, along with Abd al-Kuri Island were
reportedly (but there’s no clear source) leased
for 99 years in 2016 from Saudi-sponsored former Yemeni president
Mansur Abd Rabbuh Hadi, who sought to gain Abu Dhabi’s support amid the
conflict gripping the impoverished state.
Hadi seems to have been myopic and desperate as the UAE has occupied
Socotra Island, despite the Yemeni government’s presence there and
without informing the Hadi government. This led to a meeting between the
Saudis, Emiratis, and Hadi governmental representatives on Socotra
after Saudi-based Hadi accused UAE officials of behaving like occupiers in Yemen. In what may be a mediatory effort or a total loss of power for Hadi, Saudi troops now occupy Socotra.
And it is an occupation, with Britain’s The Independent reporting
its writers on Socotra “found the UAE has all but annexed this
sovereign piece of Yemen, building a military base, setting up
communications networks, conducting its own census and inviting Socotra
residents to Abu Dhabi by the planeload for free healthcare.” In fact,
the UAE is going heavy on the militaristic side, constructing
an anchorage for warships, a gigantic air base, and facilities for air
defense and shore-to-sea missile batteries to defend the island.
Healthcare may be a charitable act and considering that Yemenis are
suffering it’s hard to look beyond the contrived humanitarian efforts,
but by encroaching onto, and occupying, sovereign territory in a
unilateral way, the UAE’s expansionist agenda is apparent.
From the perspective of UAE supporters, the country is carrying out
important security work in Socotra and aiding the island’s inhabitants
who have been neglected by Yemen’s failed government. The neglected
rhetoric may be convincing but the security pretext isn’t, especially
considering the island was spared the violence that has ravaged mainland
Yemen to justify such a deployment.
The Emirati foreign ministry blames the Muslim Brotherhood for
drumming up anti-Emirati sentiment over Socotra, but British press
investigations cite Socotra residents in protest against the effective Crimea-style annexation of their island. We’re not hearing CNN scream annexation though are we?
The lucrative financial gain of commandeering these islands is
noteworthy: fish-rich waters can be exploited by the UAE, and catches
can be transported to the Emirates’ markets. The addition of Socotra for
UAE tourism operators, through weekly commercial flights and package
vacations, also adds to the Emirati domestic economy.
The strategic significance of Socotra can’t be dismissed either as it
sits in the Gulf of Aden, between the shipping traffic lanes on the way
to the Bab al-Mandab Strait, and beyond, the Suez Canal of Egypt. The
island boasts a 3,000-metre-long runway, ideal for fighter jets and
large military aircraft to command kinetic dominance over the energy
shipping lanes and southern coast of the Middle East and Horn of Africa.
Furthermore, the UAE’s major maritime facility is in Jebel Ali in
Dubai, lies inside the Gulf, and is vulnerable to conditions in the
Strait of Hormuz, controlled by Oman and Iran. To negate this
vulnerability, the UAE’s “lease” or “occupation” of Socotra allows it to
establish a pivotal maritime base that would augment its regional naval
designs and capabilities.
Such a naval base would also complement its port at Khor Fakkan on
the Gulf of Oman, or its ports in Berbera in Somaliland, Bosasa in
Puntland, or Assab in Eritrea, and Mukalla if Yemen is partitioned.
Partitioning Yemen would gift the entire southern coast of South Yemen to a favoured UAE, which sponsored actors like Aidarous al-Zubaidi, and Hani bin Breik in establishing the Southern Transitional Council.
Equally, establishing such ports allows the UAE to safeguard its
commercial ports against Pakistan and Iran’s development of their port
facilities on the Indian Ocean.
The fork in the road
From Emirati-backed separatists wrenching much of Aden
from other pro-Hadi government factions and thus pro-Saudi forces in
January, UAE proxies in Yemen are breaking somewhat from the Saudi
agenda. Now, even though MBS and MBZ are cohorts, meaning the
on-the-ground events could be completely coordinated, a fork in the road
could yet come.
While the Saudi’s have primarily been fighting the Houthis to prevent
an ideological change in Yemen, as it had done historically, and carve
out a new historical trade route, Abu Dhabi has been promoting the
fragmentation of Yemen and establishing a “String of Pearls” in
acquiring pivotal ports by occupation, exploiting the “Balkanized” Somalia, and exerting influence over Djibouti and thus landlocked Ethiopia.
It’s this ambition that could ignite the animus of MBS and sour this comradery, just as it has raised the ire of Qatar, which is aligned with Turkey, coincidently, which Abu Dhabi is competing with for good relations with Somalia and Sudan.
Just as the “petrocracy” trifecta’ (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE)
worked together until Saudi and Qatari interests diverged, and Qatar
was labeled a pariah and ostracized from the trio. Its great rival the
UAE seized on Qatar’s containment. Riyadh may be in for an envious
awakening as Emirati ambitions diversify and gain, while the Saudis
expend blood and fortunes in combating the Houthis and slaughtering
innocent Yemenis.