ABU DHABI // Regional peace and stability are under threat and the UAE faces an unprecedented number of challenges to its security, a senior government minister warned on Sunday.
Extremism, the rise of ISIL in Syria and Iraq, Egypt’s instability and Iran’s sectarian policies must be addressed with the help of the international community, said Dr Anwar Gargash, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.
“In these troubled times, there is an urgent need to enhance our common understanding of regional and global challenges and to align our strategic thinking to check emerging threats,” he said.
“Nowhere is this more the case than here in the Middle East, where regional peace and stability is once more under threat.”
Dr Gargash said the sheer number of challenges the UAE was facing was unprecedented, including sectarian warfare in Syria and Iraq triggered by repressive governance, and the rapid rise of ISIL, fuelled by foreign fighters from around the world.
In addition, he said, there was “militia violence and state failure in Libya, attacks on Yemen’s sovereignty by foreign-financed Houthi rebels, violence in Gaza and Israel’s continuing occupation of Palestine.
“In the face of these threats, there is a clear need for increased coordinated action. The UAE is conscious of its regional responsibilities and is willing to act as part of a collective effort.”
Dr Gargash said the UAE had repeatedly warned about the growing threat posed to the region by extremists and their ideologies.
“While some of our allies thought we were being too alarmist, the rise of ISIL confirms the magnitude of the threat,” he said. “Countering it requires a clear-sighted and comprehensive strategy.”
Dr Gargash said there was a need to maintain a common front and a strategic and intellectual definition of what constituted extremism and how best to tackle it.
“Combating extremism requires a broad range of tools and a sustained effort by the international community,” he said. “Although military operations and intelligence cooperation will form an important part of these efforts, it is crucial that our cooperation extends to other areas as well.
“Foremost is our ability to stitch together political conditions on the ground to consolidate military gains. Other measures will include financial controls, immigration, and cultural and educational measures, all of which the UAE is willing to cooperate with its partners in.”
He said the failure of the international community to act early in Syria allowed the situation to descend further into chaos.
“Urgent international action is now needed to strengthen moderate actors to provide them with tools to fight extremism and intolerance,” he said. “While international air strikes play an important role in checking the advances of ISIL, they cannot be enough on their own.”
Dr Gargash said any strategy designed to bring peace and stability to the Arab world required success in Egypt. He urged the international community to provide more financial support.
He said the continued expansion of Iranian influence in the Arab world posed a major problem in GCC-Iran and Arab-Iranian relations as the country’s “inherently sectarian foreign policy” exacerbated regional tension.
“An Arab-Iranian cooperative and comfortable relationship will very much depend on non-interference, respect for national entities and sovereignty of national politics,” he said. “But none of these challenges can be tackled by regional actors alone. Instead, they require a concerted response, informed by a comprehensive strategy, employing a broad range of tools.”
He said it was essential to see the strategic picture in the “current complicated debris”.
“We need to discern the values that need to be protected and successfully championed, such as national identity, stability and an open-minded approach towards how societies and states should be governed,” he said.
“We are clear-sighted and have no ambitions to play a much larger role regionally. We must reject instability borne out of sectarianism and an outmoded and regressive view of religion.
“This strategic outlook must be ever-present in dealing with current turmoil and, without this clarity of vision, many of our actions and collective efforts will seem aimless and ineffective.”
Dr Gargash was speaking at the opening of the first Abu Dhabi Strategic Debate, a policy forum in the capital organised by the Emirates Policy Centre.
Participants include senior figues from Nato, the European Union and the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, diplomats, academics and political anaylysts.
The forum concludes on Monday.
cmalek@thenational.ae
