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?????????????????????????????????????????????????Monday, June 5, 2017
Leaked emails: UAE, pro-Israel think tank plan meeting on Qatar, Al Jazeera
Leak of emails belonging to UAE ambassador to US follows recent hacking of Qatari state news agency
Saturday 3 June 2017 16:40 UTC-Sunday 4 June 2017
Hackers have released email
exchanges between the Emirati ambassador to the US and top foreign
policy figures that include details of a forthcoming meeting between UAE
officials and a pro-Israel think tank, reports said on Saturday.
UAE envoy Yousef al-Otaiba is an influential figure in Washington DC, and is in "almost constant phone and email contact" with US President Donald Trump's son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner.
The emails reveal what appears to
be a close relationship between Otaiba and members of the pro-Israel
think tank, Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), which is funded
by businessman Sheldon Adelson, an ally of Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and a major donor to US conservative and Republican
Party Causes.
Such a high level of backchannel
cooperation between a Gulf monarchy that does not recognise Israel and a
leading neoconservative think tank might seem surprising had they not
worked together in the past against their common rival, Iran.
The emails also detail a multi-page proposed agenda of a forthcoming meeting between FDD and UAE government officials that is scheduled for 11-14 June.
Read more ►
Mark Dubowitz, FDD's CEO, and John
Hannah, FDD's senior counsellor, are listed as attending, as well as
Jonathan Schanzer, FDD vice president for research. UAE officials
requested for meetings to include Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the crown
prince who commands the armed forces.
The agenda includes an extensive
discussion between the two sides on Qatar. They are scheduled to
discuss, for example, "Al Jazeera as an instrument of regional
instability". Media network Al Jazeera is based in Qatar and is
state-funded.
Also included is discussion of
possible US-UAE "policies to positively impact Iranian internal
situation". Among the list of policies are "political, economic,
military, intelligence, and cyber tools," which are also brought up as a
possible response to "contain and defeat Iranian aggression".
Then
national security adviser Susan Rice speaks with Yousef al-Otaiba, UAE
Ambassador to US, during an Iftar dinner at the White House in 2013
(AFP)
In another email, Dubowitz sends
Otaiba a list of companies that invest in both Iran and the UAE, in an
apparent attempt to encourage the Emirati government to apply pressure
on those companies to make a choice.
And last August, Hannah sent Otaiba an article claiming the UAE and FDD were both behind an attempted military coup in Turkey.
"Honored that we're in your
company,” Hannah writes to Otaiba. One month before the attempted coup
Hannah set out the case for a military takeover of Turkey in an article
in Foreignpolicy.com.
Hannah wrote: "Some kind of
military intervention also can't be dismissed entirely - especially if
coupled with widespread popular opposition to Erdogan's rising despotism
and disregard for Turkey's existing constitution ... Should Turkey's
situation continue to deteriorate, the theory goes, it's not unthinkable
that the military would turn on Erdogan in order to 'save' Turkey from
his road to Islamist dictatorship and state failure."
In a recent email exchange in April, Hannah complains to Otaiba that Qatar is hosting a Hamas meeting at an Emirati-owned hotel.
Otaiba replies that the real issue
was the US military base in Qatar - "How's this, you move the base then
we'll move the hotel :-)."
The leaks follow the recent
hacking of the Qatari state news agency, which published fake remarks by
the emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, that purportedly had him
criticising some leaders of fellow Gulf Arab states and calling for an
easing of tensions with Iran.
Read more ►
Writing to Washington Post journalist David Ignatius, after the latter wrote a column about Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman,
Otaiba writes: "It looks from how you wrote this piece, that you are
beginning to see what we've been seeing for the last two years. Change!"
“Change in attitude, change in style, change in approach,” the Emirati ambassador writes.
“I think we should all agree these
changes in Saudi are much needed…” he continues, before saying: “Our
job now, is to do everything possible to ensure MBS succeeds,” referring
to the deputy crown prince and defence minister.
In July 2013, after Egypt's first
democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, was deposed, Otaiba
wrote excitedly to former George W Bush administration officials Stephen
Hadley and Joshua Bolten.
“Today’s situation in Egypt is a
second revolution. There more people on the streets today than January
of 2011. This is not a coup, this is revolution 2.0. A coup is when the
military imposes its will on people by force. Today, the military is
RESPONDING to people’s wishes.”
An email from Otaiba to Robert
Gates, former defence secretary for Barack Obama, and now a principal at
RiceHadleyGates, an influential Washington consulting firm, reveals
friendly associations between Gates and Mohammed bin Zayed, the
crown prince of Abu Dhabi.
"MBZ sends his best from abu dhabi," Otaiba writes. "He says 'give them hell tomorrow'."
The anonymous hackers, calling themselves GlobalLeaks, sent the emails to the Intercept, Huffington Post, and the Daily Beast.
The hackers used an .ru email
address, associated with Russia, meaning they may be connected with
Russia or trying to give the impression that they are.