Leaked emails: UAE, pro-Israel think tank plan meeting on Qatar
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, Middle East Eye reported on Saturday.
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, Middle East Eye reported 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.
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.
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".
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 :-)."