The United Arab Emirates (UAE) yesterday formally endorsed the designation of 82 organizations as terror groups, in line with its federal law on combating terrorism, Al- Arabiya TV reported.
A list of the designated organizations, published by the country’s state-run WAM news agency, includes Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, the organization’s local and regional affiliates, as well as ISIS and al-Qaeda-linked groups operating in different parts of the Middle East. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an American group, was also included.
The UAE is a fierce opponent of the Muslim Brotherhood, the regional organization that also created Hamas, and of its vision of bringing political Islam to power. The UAE’s move follows a similar step taken by Saudi Arabia a few months ago.
The Israel Project’s Middle East analyst Yonatan Gonen said the UAE joins Egypt and Saudi Arabia in designating the Muslim Brotherhood, while Qatar continues to give it support:
The UAE has enthusiastically endorsed Saudi Arabia’s and Egypt’s viewpoint, designating the Muslim Brotherhood and ISIS, and soon it may add Lebanese Hezbollah to the list. Now the pressure is mounting on the Qatar, which is accused of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. These three countries believe the Muslim Brotherhood organization is no less dangerous than Hamas. Their antagonism towards Hamas and the Brotherhood is reducing their enmity toward Israel.
The Israel Project is the publisher of The Tower.
Shiite groups also appear on the list, including Hezbollah in the Gulf region and brigades with the same name in Iraq.
Another Shiite organization outlawed by United Arab Emirates is the Houthi movement in Yemen, which, according to various reports, receives assistance from Iran to help in its bid to take over the Sunni country.
In a video just released by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, states that it is others, presumably the other Gulf states and Israel, who are “dragging … the peaceful movements of the people in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Libya into blood-soaked conflicts.”
Qatar has long been at odds with other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council. An agreement in April had sought to heal the rift.
Over the summer, Qatar showed that it was still at odds with the Western-oriented Sunni Gulf states, as it supported Hamas during Operation Protective Edge, and even prevailed upon American Secretary of State John Kerry to consider a Hamas-friendly ceasefire proposal into account. Jonathan Spyer, writing in Qatar’s Rise and America’s Tortured Middle East Policy, which was published in the August 2014 issue of The Tower Magazine, recounted:
In recent weeks, the U.S. appeared to momentarily favor the Qataris—alongside the Hamas supporting government of Turkey —over Egypt in the diplomatic effort to end the Gaza conflict. On July 26, Secretary of State John Kerry met with the foreign ministers of Turkey and Qatar in Paris as part of his attempt to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Egypt and Israel were furious—and so was the Palestinian Authority. PA officials blasted the U.S. for “appeasing” Qatar, and referred to the Paris meeting as a gathering of “friends of Hamas.”
Spyer cited this as an example of a “three way divide in the Middle East” among “moderate and Western-oriented Sunni Arab states, like Egypt, Jordan, UAE, Saudi, Bahrain, Kuwait and others; the Sunni extremists terrorist supporting states, Qatar and Turkey, who fund and promote forces like the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas; and the dangerous and radical axis of Iran, Assad, and Hezbollah.”
[Photo: Jonathan Rashad / flickr]