ABU DHABI // Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed met with the US secretary of state on Tuesday to discuss security cooperation and strengthening diplomatic efforts to address regional conflicts as well as counter Iran’s influence.
Sheikh Mohammed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, also met with senior members of congress to discuss bilateral ties and the US president’s trip later this week to Riyadh for talks with Muslim heads of state and the GCC.
To underline the cementing of ties that the US president’s first foreign trip is framed to achieve, both Washington and Riyadh are looking to finalise a major new arms sale to Saudi Arabia, and a plan for a Saudi commitment to invest in Mr Trump’s domestic economic and infrastructure agenda.
US national security adviser General H R McMaster on Tuesday laid out a detailed itinerary for Mr Trump’s “historic trip” to Saudi Arabia, the Vatican and Jerusalem, in which he said the president would urge unity between the world’s major faiths.
In Riyadh, after a day of talks with King Salman and the Saudi crown prince, Mr Trump will address around 50 heads of state from Muslim-majority countries participating in the Saudi-led Islamic Military Alliance to Fight Terrorism on his “hopes for a peaceful vision of Islam”, Gen McMaster said.
“The speech is intended to unite the broader Muslim world against common enemies of all civilisation and to demonstrate America’s commitment to our Muslim partners,” he added.
During the meeting, Muslim leaders will discuss greater counterterrorism cooperation with the US, which Mr Trump has stated is his foremost foreign policy goal. The meeting is also, in part, intended as a signal of Washington’s intent to contain Iran and its regional ambitions.
“This has to do with standing up in unity against Iran as opposed to any particular religious overtone,” US secretary of state Rex Tillerson said on Monday.
While in Saudi Arabia, Mr Trump will also open a centre to deradicalise extremists in the kingdom and engage in a Twitter forum with young Saudis before heading to Jerusalem where he will meet Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and pray at the Western Wall in the Old City. Later, he will meet Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem “where he will convey his administration’s eagerness to facilitate an agreement that ends” the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Gen McMaster failed to answer a direct question on whether the US government considers the Western Wall to be within Israeli territory, and said Israeli leaders would not accompany the US president on his visit to the site.
The White House is hoping that the positive atmosphere around its relations with Gulf countries will contribute momentum and gain Arab cooperation for its goal of brokering a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.
On the first day of his two-day trip to Washington, Sheikh Mohammed had separate meetings with president Trump and the US defence secretary, General James Mattis.
On Monday, the US announced that the two countries had “recently” concluded a new defence cooperation agreement that “will enable closer and more agile collaboration against a range of threats over the next fifteen years”, according to a Pentagon statement.
The two countries signed a previous defence cooperation agreement in 1994. In recent years, both Democratic and Republican administrations have come to view the growing military and counter-terrorism capabilities of the UAE as a potentially strategic asset which, through greater cooperation, will allow Washington to eventually reduce its own commitments in the region.
In recent years, the partners have developed a defence cooperation framework for discussing “joint strategic approaches to regional disputes and conflicts and to better integrate US capabilities with those of the UAE”, according to a Congressional Research Service report issued in February.
The new agreement may formalise the details worked on in the broader framework, but so far no details have been made available.
“The agreement marks a new chapter in our partnership and reflects the breadth and depth of our ongoing cooperation, which is underpinned by the mutual respect we share for the professionalism and efficacy of our armed forces,” Gen Mattis said.
“I look forward to continuing to work with the UAE in support of security and stability in the Middle East and around the world.”
tkhan@thenational.ae
* With additional reporting by Agence France-Presse