THE FUTURE OF U.S.-UAE RELATIONS WITH H.E. DR. ANWAR GARGASH
BY JUSTIN CHAPMAN
The Pacific Council recently hosted a discussion with H.E. Dr. Anwar Gargash, the United Arab Emirate’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, on the recent normalization of relations, the state of the region, and U.S.-UAE relations. Read takeaways from the conversation. The discussion was moderated by Dr. Jerrold D. Green, president and CEO of the Pacific Council.
Here are takeaways from the conversation:
“A lot of the Arab narrative prior to the creation of the state of Israel was not so hostile,” Gargash said. “If we think the current state of affairs is permanent, then it will be. If we’re stuck in time, then we will be. But if we really aspire forward, we will find out we are the masters of how much we want to change our environment.”
Why did the UAE normalize relations with Israel and why now? “On the one hand, we’ve had an evolutionary relationship with Israel,” he said. “This is not something we stated in 2020 from zero. It started with small things: an Israeli tennis player and golf player and issues with why we didn’t issue a visa at that time, then there was a large IMF conference in Dubai where for the first time there was a formal Israeli presence, and then we moved on to our global renewal energy campaign. With these things, you sort of realize that you don’t have to agree and you can have areas of differences, but never stop having bridges of communication. It’s important, in our assessment, that we can come to the Israelis and say, ‘We disagree on the Netanyahu policy on a two-state solution, but we can still have relations with you that’s cultural and economic with investments.’”
“Looking back at 70 years of Arab dealings with Israel, we’ve been more successful when we’ve negotiated rather than when we’ve had wars together,” he said. “Not the UAE, but the Arab world. So clearly, the lessons are, who emerges as the heroes of this? Who brings something to the table? Who brings peace? Bridges of communication are essential. Political differences are acceptable as long as you have that. Today, the two most helpful Arab countries to the Palestinians are the Jordanians and the Egyptians. Both of them have relations with Israel, so they have peace treaties, they have leverage, they have a network, they are better qualified to assess who to speak to and whom not to. All of these things tell you pragmatically that this is the most successful route.”
“That doesn’t happen overnight, and it’s been a learning curve, to be honest,” he said. So why now? “If you wait for the right moment in the Middle East, there’s never a right moment. There has to be a courageous moment rather than a right moment.”
If you are a Pacific Council member and would like to watch this full conversation, reach out to us at engage@pacificcouncil.org.
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The views and opinions expressed here are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Pacific Council.
