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Cohen Meets Emirati Leaders On Gulf Tour
ABU DHABI (AFP) – U.S. Defence Secretary William Cohen met Emirati leaders on Saturday during a visit to Abu Dhabi, as officials in his delegation said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict had not ruined the good ties between the two states.
Cohen met the United Arab Emirates (UAE) armed forces chief of staff, General Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed al-Nahyan, and Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan.
UAE President Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nayhan, their father, is still in a U.S. hospital recovering from a kidney transplant operation in August.
As Cohen prepared to leave for Qatar on the next leg of his tour after Bahrain and Oman, U.S. officials described the UAE as a longstanding "good friend" of the United States.
"The Middle East crisis has not derailed our relationship," one official told reporters traveling with Cohen.
Around 300 U.S. aircrew involved in "Operation Southern Watch" to enforce a no-fly zone over southern Iraq are stationed in the UAE, according to U.S. sources. And the U.S. Fifth Fleet, which helps enforce sanctions on Iraq, uses its Dubai port.
The United States also praised the UAE for auctioning off tankers intercepted by the U.S. navy in Gulf waters for violating the sanctions in force against Iraq since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
The tankers' illegal cargoes of Iraqi crude and oil products were also sold off, with the proceeds going into a U.N. compensation fund for the invasion, the U.S. sources said.
But in contrast to the U.S.’s tough line on Iraq, the UAE is a strong supporter of Iraq's campaign for a lifting of the decade-old embargo.
The Cohen visit also took place under the shadow of the seven-week-old conflict between Israel and the Palestinians that has cost more than 240 lives, most of them Palestinians killed by Israeli army gunfire.
Newspapers in the UAE, where pro-Palestinian demonstrations have been held, as in the rest of the Arab world, have vented anger over the killings and the U.S.’s support for the Israeli state.
On Saturday, Al-Bayan, a leading daily, blasted the West's "flagrant and shameful partiality" in favor of Israel.
"This partiality is apparent in the U.S. position and the current passivity of the Europeans in the face of Israel's brutality in the occupied territories," the paper said in an editorial.
On Sunday, Cohen is to travel on to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, returning to Oman on Monday for a meeting with Sultan Qaboos, who is celebrating the 30th anniversary of his rule.
The defense secretary will also visit Egypt, Jordan and Israel before returning to Washington on Wednesday. The tour has been organized under strict security following the October 12th bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen that killed 17 sailors.
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