The UAE is bringing a message of optimism about the future to the UN General Assembly high-level week while doubling down on diplomacy, Lana Nusseibeh, Minister of State, has told The National.
In a wide-ranging interview in New York, Ms Nusseibeh laid out her country's key messages and reaffirmed its commitment to multilateralism.
“Although it seems that this is a really uncertain time, [...] a challenging time, it is not a time to give up hope. It is not a time to give up optimism about the future. It is not a time to give up diplomacy and a recommitment to multilateralism,” said Ms Nusseibeh.
“I hope to see [...] breakthroughs not only this week, but in the months ahead, because of the meetings that happen here, because of the convenings that happen here, because of the private spaces outside of the media eye as much as possible, where that hard diplomacy can be done, and the peace can be won.”
More than 1,000 bilateral meetings between member states are taking place this week, as behind-the-scenes diplomacy focuses on forging new partnerships and finding solutions to conflicts around the world, particularly in the Middle East.
The Iran war continues to affect countries across the region and beyond, with attacks on ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, a rebel takeover of Yemen's west coast and a growing threat to the Bab Al Mandeb strait, alongside unresolved conflicts in Lebanon, Palestine and Sudan.
The UAE was attacked by Iran this year, but despite that, its leaders have insisted on diplomacy, seeking an end not only to the Iran war but also to other conflicts gripping the region.
“We are very much focused on de-escalation and dialogue,” affirmed Ms Nusseibeh. “We walk into this year's General Assembly proud and confident of what we have gone through over the last year. We've learnt some lessons that we'd like to continue to utilise in these conversations that will be happening this week.”
She explained that, with the International Monetary Fund describing the country’s economy as robust, the UAE is seeking to maintain that trajectory.
“We need to see dialogue and diplomacy prevail, to come through with a long-term solution on how to create a regional security architecture, where everyone's interests are maintained and protected, but where we all abide by the rule of law,” she added. “Freedom of navigation and international law are all principles we need to recommit to. We see this week as an opportunity for high-stakes diplomacy behind the scenes.”
UN mediation potential
The UAE is participating in the main week of the 81st session of the General Assembly, with a high-level delegation with a diverse range of portfolios, spanning politics, economy, health and other sectors, led by Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Emirati officials have held dozens of meetings since last week, focused not only on conflict resolution but also on diversifying partnerships, expanding the UAE’s investment portfolio in artificial intelligence and discussing Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements (Cepas), which Ms Nusseibeh said have been advancing at a rapid pace.
“We're very positive about the future. We'd like other countries to also remain positive about the future,” she affirmed.
One area the UAE had been working to develop even before the Iran war was alternative trade routes, including through expanded port capacity, rail connectivity and new economic corridors. The Strait of Hormuz will nevertheless remain vital to the country.
Ms Nusseibeh highlighted that diversification is in the “UAE's DNA”, and that its bet was to diversify from a hydrocarbon economy, decades ago, towards a renewable-energy economy and a clean nuclear-energy economy.
“Today, our economy is almost 80 per cent non-oil GDP. We have an exceptionally strong economy, with substantial assets in our sovereign wealth funds and a significant investment portfolio around the world,” she elaborated.
“What we also understand, very pragmatically, is our geography. We can't change our geography, so we have invested in economic diversification and in building the economy of the future, centred around AI as the power for the next 50 years to be a force for good.”
Despite the conflicts raging across the region, the UN has played a more limited role in mediating and finding solutions, with Gulf and other Middle Eastern countries increasingly engaging directly and taking on key roles in efforts to resolve crises.
“The UN has not been at the forefront of peace and mediation efforts in the way that we have traditionally been used to it being in previous decades,” said Ms Nusseibeh. “There is a crisis of confidence and a deficit of trust in the ability of the UN to be able to mediate between great powers, non-state actors [and] a new complex array of different actors on the world stage today to bring about resolution to conflict,” she added.
However, she explained that even as the UAE has gone through “one of the most challenging periods in our history as a country”, it is coming to the UN to say it has learnt lessons from that, and those lessons “are making us double down on what the UN represents, but its potential that has been untapped in peace and mediation”.
Management of non-state actors
This year's General Assembly meetings are being held after the Iran-backed Houthis took over Yemen's west coast overlooking the strategic Bab Al Mandeb strait, further threatening shipping and transit amid concerns that the vital chokepoint could become a target.
The armed group’s advance and its attacks against Saudi Arabia and international shipping have been condemned by the UAE and other countries, while calls are growing for further action to curb its expansion in Yemen and growing reach into the Horn of Africa.
“We have been calling for the management of non-state actors in the region for well over a decade, including when we were part of a coalition in Yemen, and so the attacks of the Houthis over the weekend against Saudi Arabia's stability and sovereignty are an outrage,' said Ms Nusseibeh.
“We strongly condemn them, as we have done consistently. The UN cannot be absent in some of these key core crises of our time. We need to see the international system work better to help mediate this,” she added.
The meetings are also being convened a year after the Trump peace plan for Gaza, which has helped slow the war but has yet to yield comprehensive peace.
Ms Nusseibeh warned that the situation is now “at a critical turning point for our ability to preserve the positive direction that President [Donald] Trump's Board of Peace – of which the UAE is a founding member – contributed significant political and financial support to. We're at a critical turning point for its continued success”.
She explained that this is an important week to double down on UN Security Council Resolution 2803, and to make sure that “the spoilers on all sides” are not allowed to dominate the trajectory of peace that is envisioned by the Board of Peace for both the Palestinians and Israelis, and the wider region.
Sudan's arms embargo
Another conflict to be focused on this week is Sudan, where fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has devastated the country of 50 million people and battered its economy.
SAF leader Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan has vowed to continue fighting until the RSF is defeated and he is able to control the whole country, rejecting repeated attempts by the US and regional powers to bring about an end to the fighting. Both sides have been accused of grave abuse and war crimes.
Massad Boulos, Mr Trump’s senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs, said in Dubai last week that there is “no future” for either of Sudan’s two warring generals in the country’s political leadership.
The UN Security Council has given members one month to consider a US proposal to expand the arms embargo currently in place for Darfur across Sudan, after further evidence emerged of chemical weapons use by the SAF and a fact-finding mission found both warring parties were using foreign-supplied weapons.
“We need to see a move to an independent civilian government,” insisted Ms Nusseibeh.
She described the US draft Security Council resolution proposing a full arms embargo on Sudan as “a very positive initiative”, adding that a “technical rollover” for an arms embargo is “a really important initiative and should be tried again, and Security Council members who are supportive of seeing peace in Sudan should support that”.
Ms Nusseibeh also called for a parallel UN Security Council resolution imposing an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Sudan to allow the mediation efforts of different tracks to find a solution.
“The civilian track is key to that, so reinforcing and bolstering civilian power structures in Sudan, the voice of the Sudanese people to be able to direct a political road map for themselves, which is work the EU, among other countries and groups, have been working on is also key.”
She said that “it's misguided” to blame the cause of Sudan's civil war solely on other countries. “Sudan is a huge country that has seen decades of civil war. This is another iteration, another cycle of that, and it came about because a genuine political transition process was in fact overthrown by the military, and then we've seen the breakdown now between two military generals who are fighting for resources and control in the country,” she explained.
“We need to see a return to the rule of law in Sudan, accountability and justice for all victims, perpetrated by whoever. They need to be held to account, and we need to see Sudan stabilise. It is too big a country to fail.”
