DEMILITERIZATION OF AFGHANISTAN
POLICY STATEMENT
Country: UAE
With the fall of Kabul, in 1996, the Taliban had established a government in the country, only recognised by Pakistan, Saudi
Arabia and United Arab Emirates, which began to impose an extremely repressive Islamic regime throughout the country,
repressing women and committing extensive human rights violations. However, following the 11 September terrorist attacks in
2001, the USA-led coalition formed an alliance with the Northern Alliance with the purpose of overthrowing the Taliban regime,
and inserting a pro-Western government.The subsequent fall of the Taliban marked the end of 23 years of war in Afghanistan
and the beginning of a complex peace-building process with the international community as a major player. In the year 2020,
the US government signed a withdrawal agreement with the Taliban and left the country in early 2021, leaving the country in
uncertainty regarding it’s government.
The Afghan crisis has now become an important global issue as it can be one of the leading issues in determining world peace.
The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia were the two states that, along with Pakistan, recognized the pre-2001 Taliban
government. The UAE had maintained a small military presence in Afghanistan since 2003 on the sidelines of the post 9/11 US invasion and Washington DC’s larger ‘War on Terror’ narrative. The country has since the beginning tried to
maintain a friendly relation with Afghanistan, much like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan though it has been increasingly difficult
to do so considering the uncertainties prevailing over the future of Afghanistan.
The UAE was surprised not by the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, but by how poorly it was done. According to Emiratis
involved in airlift efforts, during the early days of evacuations, an Emirati pilot defied a “do not land” order from the air traffic
control tower at Kabul airport; he landed anyway and successfully evacuated Emiratis and several hundred others. The sense in
Abu Dhabi is that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed (MBZ) is tired of cleaning up after the mistakes of others.
Since the fall of Kabul, the UAE has flown more than 250 tons of humanitarian aid into Afghanistan and has opened its airports
to more than five thousand Afghan refugees. But early in the evacuation it was doubtful that it would accept any Afghan
refugees at all, since MBZ is concerned that the Taliban will look for reasons to act against the UAE for having embedded its
special forces troops with its American counterparts in Afghanistan. But this is where the Gulf rift has proven once again to
have a silver lining for US foreign policy: A future in which Qatar is the unchallenged favorite Gulf partner of the Biden
administration is untenable in Abu Dhabi, and for this and other reasons of national interest, the UAE has pulled out all the
stops to assist with evacuation and humanitarian efforts.
The Emirati government is concerned about the growth and consolidation of other violent extremist groups inside Afghanistan.
It fears that vocal opposition to religious extremism from its leadership will make the country a target for these groups. It will
not rely on the United States for the most accurate information about these groups going forward. NGOs and officials in the
UAE and Israel cooperated on an evacuation effort in their first combined aid mission since the signing of the Abraham Accords.
This cooperation on the ground in Afghanistan will likely expand.
The UAE may also see a closer relationship with China as a way to keep eyes on the ground in Afghanistan. China shares with
the UAE (and with Saudi Arabia, the United States, NATO, and Israel) the goal of preventing terrorist groups with ambitions of
attacking abroad from setting up camp in Afghanistan. As China deepens its relationship with the Taliban-led government in
Kabul—and leverages this relationship to maintain and expand the reach of its extraction ventures around the country—it will
have better visibility inside Afghan borders than any Western nation.
From this, we can infer that the UAE will further ignore démarches from the United States about its relationship with China.
In the 90s, along with Pakistan, only Saudi Arabia and the UAE had officially recognised the Taliban government in Kabul.
In 2021, history of the Afghanistan conundrum may have very limited room for manoeuvre in the Gulf.
Delegate name: Mariam Rahim