The diplomatic adviser to the UAE president told a session in Dubai that relations with Tehran must continue, but that confidence broken by the attacks on the Gulf will take years to restore.
asserted
confidence → tell → years
Trust between the United Arab Emirates and Iran will take years to rebuild, UAE president's diplomatic adviser Dr Anwar Gargash said on Thursday.
asserted
adviser → take → Thursday
Speaking at the Arab Media Summit in Dubai, he said relations with Tehran had to continue because the two countries were neighbours, but that confidence was a separate question after the attacks on the Gulf states.
asserted
confidence → speak → states
Gargash said the UAE was managing the crisis while also assessing the future of the relationship.
asserted
UAE → say → relationship
We have very complex relations with Iran, and certainly there is a collapse in the security regiment in the region.
asserted
We → have → region
Thus, we have to find some new channels of understanding,” he said.
asserted
he → have → understanding
He set out the UAE approach in three parts.
asserted
He → set → parts
“Our role, or rather our approach, is based on three elements.
asserted
role → base → elements
First, to defend our sovereignty, and then to be flexible,” he said.
asserted
he → defend → sovereignty
The third was continuity of economic development through the crisis, he said, citing the president's visit to Germany.
asserted
he → say → Germany
“We have to try.
asserted
We → have → ?
To maintain our development, our economic uproar, and the visit of our president to Germany was successful because we don't want to stop our economy in the midst of this crisis,” he said.
asserted
he → maintain → crisis
Asked about his 7 September statement that UAE confidence in Iran was broken, Gargash said he had drawn a deliberate distinction.
asserted
he → ask → distinction
“Actually, I differentiated between the relations and the trust, and I said that the relations are a must and we should have communication and relations with Iran based on open dialogue and a dialogue that would overcome the daily matters,” he said.
asserted
he → differentiate → matters
“Confidence building, I believe, will take us a long time.
asserted
I → believe → time
We need years to rebuild this trust.”
asserted
We → need → trust
“The Iranian president said that the aggression from Iran on the GCC countries was a big mistake,” he said.
asserted
he → say → countries
“I think it is a geostrategic mistake that created a more complex situation for Iran that would affect its future.”
asserted
that → think → future
He said Iran's use of proxy militias kept it close to the aggression, and that the Gulf states would be the parties to broker Tehran's return to its international place, trade and commerce, once the attacks stopped.
asserted
attacks → say → place
“They can't negotiate a new future while they are still threatening and being aggressive against the neighbourhood,” he said.
asserted
he → negotiate → neighbourhood
Asked whether the UAE had taken any measures of its own against Iran, financial or political, he said it had not.
asserted
it → ask → Iran
“No, we have only defended ourselves, and we continue to defend ourselves, and we still extend our hands for friendly relations”, he said.
asserted
he → defend → relations
Gargash said Iran was made of different circles and that decision-making there was no longer held in one place, as it had been under the previous Ayatollah Ali Khamenei since 1989, and that the voices arguing against confrontation with the Gulf needed to be louder.
asserted
voices → say → Gulf
On the meeting between Sheikh Khalid bin Mohamed and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian at BRICS, Gargash said the two sides had agreed on the direction if not on everything.
asserted
sides → say → everything
But there was an agreement on the fact that we should start a new page and look to the future,” he said.
asserted
he → be → future
He said President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed had set the balance between flexibility and strength from the beginning of the war.
asserted
Zayed → say → war
“The UAE is a nice country, but we are not an easy target,” Gargash said.
asserted
Gargash → say → ?
“He was so clear in saying that Iran is going to be away from stability for decades to come.”
asserted
Iran → say → decades
Asked about the drone and rocket fire that triggered alerts in Saudi Arabia's city of Jeddah and Islam's holiest site of Mecca, Gargash said that "targeting Mecca is completely denounced and rejected.”
asserted
targeting → ask → Mecca
“The security and the sovereignty of Saudi Arabia is part of our security, and the stability of the GCC countries is interconnected,” he said.
asserted
he → say → countries
The region had suffered from militias, Gargash said, naming Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen, and that “any arms outside the state are harmful for the countries and the region”.
asserted
arms → suffer → countries
And as you are aware, and strategically speaking, the safety, security, and prosperity of Saudi Arabia is in our interest,” he said, asked whether relations with Riyadh remained open.
asserted
relations → speak → Riyadh
On the Houthis' offensive to take control of the Bab el-Mandeb strait, Gargash said that "the Houthis' control over the strait is a concern for everyone," and not just a regional issue.
asserted
control → take → everyone
"This is not related to the region, but rather to the international economy," he said.
asserted
he → relate → economy
“We go back to the basic principle that these straits are international.
asserted
straits → go → principle
Gargash set out no timetable for further contacts with Tehran, saying the UAE did not choose the war but defended itself when it started, and that “this is a beginning for a political dialogue that should be started”.
asserted
that → set → dialogue
The Aporia
