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 ABU DHABI 00003536 002 OF 002 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