DUBAI (Reuters) – The United Arab Emirates says it will no longer participate in operations by a U.S.-led task force to protect Gulf shipping, which has fallen victim to another tanker seizure by the Iranian navy in recent weeks.
The United Arab Emirates on Tuesday responded to a Wall Street Journal report that the Gulf nations were unhappy with the lack of U.S. response to Iran’s recent seizure of a tanker, citing U.S. and Gulf officials.
The UAE said in a statement that this was a “misrepresentation” of talks between the two countries.
However, he announced two months ago that he had canceled his participation in the United States Navy, which is headquartered at the U.S. naval base in Bahrain.
However, the UAE has not withdrawn from the CMF, which was set up in 2001 to combat international terrorism, and remains one of 38 partners working on security, counter-terrorism and anti-piracy issues in the Red Sea and Gulf region. said the country. Shown on her website at CMF. The UAE’s statement did not clarify why it stopped participating or whether it would rejoin.
It simply states that the UAE will engage in dialogue and diplomatic engagement to promote regional security and stability and to ensure the safety of its maritime navigation in accordance with international law.
The UAE’s foreign and defense ministries did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
US officials confirmed that the UAE remains a CMF partner country. He told Reuters what actions the UAE would take in the wake of the seizure of the tanker and the January 2022 missile attack on the UAE by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels and other destabilizing activities near the country. He said he was broadly concerned about what would happen. The Gulf region is home to some of the world’s most important shipping lanes and has seen a series of shipping attacks since 2019 amid growing tensions between its arch-enemy Iran and the United States, a key security ally of the Gulf Arab states.
Five weeks ago, Iran seized two tankers in the Gulf waters near the Strait of Hormuz within a week. The second tanker, Niovy, was on its way from Dubai in the Gulf to the port of Fujairah on the Arabian Sea in the United Arab Emirates.
The CMF regularly reports interceptions of drug smuggling in Gulf waters. A new task force was established last week to train partner Marines to improve maritime security in the Middle East.
