MEDIA REACTION: UAE-US BILATERAL FRIENDSHIP

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ABU DHABI 003536

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA/ARP; NEA/PPD; NEA/RA; INR/R/MR; PA; INR/NESA; INR/B;
RRU-NEA
IIP/G/NEA-SA
WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE; NSC
SECDEF FOR OASD/PA
USCINCCENT FOR POLAD
LONDON FOR MCKUNE
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OIIP KMDR TC
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: UAE-US BILATERAL FRIENDSHIP



1. Summary: A UAE columnist in "Al-Bayan" is critical of the UAE's
relationship with the U.S. He opines that the UAE's devotion to
bilateral relations with the U.S. has not prevented poor treatment
from the U.S., citing DP World and the detention of an Emirati
student. End Summary.


2. On 09/02, Emirati columnist Abdul-Aziz Khalil Al-Mutawa wrote in
his column in Dubai-based Arabic daily "Al-Bayan," (circulation
85,000):

"In less than one year, the UAE received from the United States -
the champion of justice, truth, freedom, peace and democracy - its
reward of friendship. The value of this reward came in two ways,
neither giving off the smell or taste of friendship and nor
containing any friendly ethics. The first one: Annulling a legal
contract consistent with the rules of globalization and its
practices under which a UAE establishment, Dubai Ports World, would
manage a number of American ports. The excuse was uglier than the
guilt itself, expressed openly and without any other justification
than that this institution belonged to an Arab Muslim country posing
a threat to the security of the United States of America. As for
the second: The detainment of an Emirati student in an American
airport for 29 hours, along with his wife and three children whose
ages did not exceed 4 years. He was arbitrarily prevented from
visiting the United States of America, although he had committed no
crime nor been charged with anything. This student had studied in
the United States for several years and carried a genuine visa
issued by the American embassy in the United Arab Emirates.

UAE's friendship to the United States, built over the decades, did
not stop the UAE from suffering the American arrogance that is
Zionist flavored. Likewise, UAE's position on the war on terror did
not help. The UAE-US friendship has not even helped us in the
liberalization of trade. Under what bond can we best describe these
events? Are they there to test the level of one friend's respect
for his friend, or to remind the friend of the distance that's
keeping them apart? Or are they to punish this friend for his noble
stance towards the tragedies and calamities that have befallen his
brethrens in religion, blood, language, land, history and joint
fate?

Whatever the case, these two events that provoke anger and
resentment should not be passed over in silence. The first event
should not be interpreted as a mere security precaution, because
security precautions do not cause a blunt, irreversible and
indisputable refusal. The second event should also not be
interpreted as security error, because any security novice is fully
aware that any terrorist or criminal, no matter how stupid does not
have one of his family members, let alone his children accompany him
in his terrorist adventures!

These two events can help one understand the views and determinants
used by American decision makers. Among them are: First, the
flagrant racism with which the United States of America deals with
Arabs and Muslims... Secondly, America hates the Arab and Islamic
world in particular, a feeling completely shared by Europe, and
which is evident throughout their diplomatic relations, military
alliances and movements to bring religions and cultures closer to
each other with Arabs. Even our attempts to obliterate ourselves
from our own identity and deny it so as to win Western culture did
not do us any good. This proves Allah's words when he said: "You
will never please the Jews and Christians until you follow their
creed" - Verse 120, Surat Cow. This is why the Islamic and Arab
world in the eyes of the West, and America in particular, will
perpetually remain antagonists to Western civilizations...

Thirdly, the multilateral friendships between the United States of
America and Arab countries, despite the alliances, and political and
commercial charters, are nonexistent in the dictionary of American
policy, and will not be in the future except as a shining mirage in
the US desert of estrangement that covers everything that is Arab.
The US only took this friendship as a pathway to walk through the
rough roads that might hinder the pursuit of its plans to stay as
one of the poles, and the only major force in the world under the
guise of a theatrical war on terrorism, including the control of the
sources of oil, and the domination of the US dollar on the global
economy and the spread of globalization, which does not permit the
world to extract itself from the subordination of the state of the

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American economy...

Fourthly, rationality, moderation, and realism are important musical
tools on which the fifth column remains playing. This column is
paid by the US to convince people of good conduct to walk in its
footsteps, despite that this musical composition only moves the
feelings of beneficiaries, even if it was at the expense of their
own countries interests. Hence, the United States relies heavily on
the fact that those beneficiaries are their strategic front line of
defense against the reactions of the Arab governments and their
people to its shameful deeds. These beneficiaries with their
defeated mentality, their biased moderation towards Arabism and
Islam, and their fictional realism in facing the American paranoia,
along with the Israeli paranoia from all that is Arab and Muslim,
ultimately only serve American and Israeli interests, from which
Arabs and Muslims will only reap further slaps!".




SISON