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We hardly ever miss a possibility to criticize our Gulf Arab companions — generally rightly so — for not doing sufficient to safeguard collective pursuits. The newest instance is their meager army contributions to the U.S.-led, counter-ISIS marketing campaign in 2014-19, which ended up delaying the territorial defeat of the terrorist group and rising the prices of battle.
However one should acknowledge that on Afghanistan, and particularly our just-completed exit from the nation, most of our Gulf Arab companions completely shined. They deserve a ton of credit score for the position they performed in our giant, difficult, and lethal evacuation — a job which was nothing in need of indispensable.
Qatar, the UAE, Bahrain, and Kuwait had been instrumental. Saudi Arabia and Oman performed necessary roles on this course of too, however the particulars are much less clear. The Saudis appear to have determined, for now not less than, to not make public statements about their efforts and to as a substitute pursue quiet coordination with the Biden administration.
It’s important to hand it to the Qataris, who understood that this was a second of disaster for the US, and that we desperately wanted assist. They confirmed braveness and dedication of their efforts to offer help. We must always always remember how the Qatari ambassador safely escorted People and others by means of the streets of Kabul, or how his colleagues evacuated a lady’s boarding college, an all-girls robotics workforce, in addition to worldwide journalists, and airlifted as many as 1,500 individuals. At al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the ahead headquarters of U.S. Central Command, the Qataris constructed an emergency subject hospital and handed out 50,000 meals a day to Afghan households ready to be evacuated by the U.S. army. That’s to not point out the beneficiant humanitarian help Doha has given to Afghanistan for a few years and the diplomatic position it performed in internet hosting U.S.-Taliban talks.
The Emiratis had been fast and efficient with their help, too. Amongst different efforts, they supported the evacuation of over 39,000 people from Afghanistan, along with 8,500, together with ladies and kids, coming to the UAE by means of nationwide carriers and UAE airports. The UAE established a transit hub and processing middle in Abu Dhabi the place vacationers from Afghanistan underwent well being and safety checks earlier than heading to the US and different locations. However the UAE’s contributions to Afghanistan date again to the early post-9/11 period. The UAE was the primary Arab nation to ship troops to Afghanistan (the place they stayed for nearly 20 years) and its 250 elite forces had been the one Arab ones to have undertaken full-scale operations in help of U.S. aims and educated Afghan commandos in Helmand Province.
Bahrain, dwelling to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, allowed flights to make the most of the nation’s transit services amid the evacuations. Its Gulf Air nationwide service transported individuals from Isa Air Base to Dulles Worldwide Airport in Virginia. U.S. Naval Forces Central Command’s newly-formed Activity Power 58 coordinated with the Bahraini authorities to briefly facilitate the secure departure of People and evacuees from Afghanistan by means of the island kingdom.
Kuwait, which hosts roughly 13,000 American troops and the ahead command of U.S. Military Central, accepted passage for five,000 Afghan evacuees on their technique to the US, and the primary flight arrived within the nation on Aug. 24. Since Aug. 16, greater than 850 People and U.S. Embassy personnel transited safely from Afghanistan to the US through Kuwait on 5 separate flights.
The Gulf Arab help for the US in its ongoing rescue efforts is in depth and laudable. However there’s much more good these international locations — and particularly Qatar — can do within the post-evacuation section.
Now that we’ve withdrawn fully, we’ve primarily misplaced all leverage with the Taliban. Aside from making use of brute power from over the horizon, there’s nothing else we will do to attempt to tame the Taliban or stop them from partnering as soon as once more with al-Qaeda and brutalizing Afghan society. That’s not the case with Doha, nevertheless, which by means of its personal communication channels and incentives can affect the conduct and governance strategy of the Taliban. Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which together with Pakistan had been the solely international locations on the earth to acknowledge the Taliban after they final dominated Afghanistan, are completely able to enjoying extra energetic diplomatic roles in Kabul, too.
However first, we now have to offer our Gulf Arab companions a purpose why they need to proceed to assist us in Afghanistan. Sure, the complete world advantages from a much less chaotic Afghanistan that doesn’t function a magnet for international terrorism, however stability in these faraway lands isn’t a right away precedence for the Gulf Arab states. Their chief safety issues stay Iran’s political violence and sectarian drive in their very own Arab neighborhood (although the Qataris, the Omanis, and the Kuwaitis are much less anxious about Tehran’s ambitions than the Saudis, the Emiratis, and the Bahrainis). If we decide to a joint strategy to the Iran risk, they may escalate their help not simply in Afghanistan however in different components of the world we care about too.
Bilal Y. Saab is a Senior Fellow and the Director of MEI’s Protection and Safety Program. The opinions expressed on this piece are his personal.
Picture by Jimmie Baker/U.S. Military through Getty Photos
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