ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Wednesday with the chief of the United Arab Emirates, wrapping up an abroad journey that noticed the highest-level outreach between the US and Russia since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Rubio’s speak with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, additionally the ruler of Abu Dhabi, comes because the U.S. additionally tries to proceed a shaky ceasefire within the Gaza Strip between Israel and the militant Hamas group.
The UAE, which diplomatically acknowledged Israel in 2020 throughout President Donald Trump’s first time period, additionally has been key in mediating prisoner swaps between Russia and Ukraine. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky met with Sheikh Mohammed on Monday.
Rubio supplied his thanks within the assembly to the UAE “for the power and enduring nature of the connection, one marked by sturdy financial ties, protection cooperation and mutual pursuits in regional stability,” State Division spokesperson Tammy Bruce stated in an announcement.
The assembly included discussions on synthetic intelligence, the Gaza Strip, Syria, Lebanon and the Crimson Sea, which had been the positioning of assaults by Yemen’s Houthi rebels till the Gaza ceasefire, Bruce added.
The UAE’s readout targeted on feedback over the Gaza Strip and the Palestinians throughout the assembly between Rubio, Sheikh Mohammed and Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s international minister, that lasted roughly half-hour.
The state-run WAM information company reported Sheikh Mohammed had informed Rubio “that the UAE strongly opposes any try and displace the Palestinian folks from Gaza.”
Trump has stated he needs to empty Gaza completely of its greater than 2 million Palestinians, saying they might not be allowed to return and suggesting at one level he would possibly power Egypt and Jordan to take them in by threatening to chop off U.S. assist.
Sheikh Mohammed additionally reportedly careworn that reconstruction in Gaza be backed by a “complete and lasting peace” based mostly on a two-state resolution, which might see the Palestinians have their very own future state out of Gaza and the West Financial institution.
Each the UAE and Saudi Arabia have been mentioned as doable websites for peace talks to finish the warfare in Ukraine, which marks its third anniversary on Monday. Saudi Arabia additionally has been talked about because the doable venue for a gathering between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, offering a possible diplomatic boon to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the dominion’s de facto ruler.
The leaders met Rubio at an Abu Dhabi conference heart that is internet hosting the biennial Worldwide Protection Exhibition and Convention this week, the place each Ukraine and Russia have displayed weapons — at the same time as Moscow faces Western sanctions over the warfare.
Russian cash continues to flood into Dubai’s booming actual property market. Every day flights between the Emirates and Moscow present a lifeline for each these fleeing conscription and the Russian elite. Ukrainians as effectively have fled to the Emirates, an autocratically dominated federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula.
Rubio additionally visited Abu Dhabi’s Abrahamic Household Home, which homes a Catholic church, a Jewish synagogue and an Islamic mosque.
—Related Press author Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.
