Reuters has published an analysis titled “Some Gulf rulers wary of U.S. shifts on Islamists, Iran” that examines the reaction of the Gulf states to the rise of the Global Muslim Brotherhood in the Middle East. The article begins:
DUBAI | Wed Sep 5, 2012 10:35am EDT (Reuters) – The rise of the Muslim Brotherhood and its ideological affiliates in the Arab Spring uprisings has stoked fears among Gulf Arab governments that the United States may one day abandon its traditional allies as it warms up to Islamists. While the ruling families in the Gulf are currently vital U.S. allies who buy large amounts of American military hardware and facilitate a significant U.S. military presence, some are apprehensive Washington may apply pressure on them to accommodate Islamists who could end up challenging their exclusive rule. In a number of colorful online outbursts, Dubai’s outspoken police chief Dhahi Khalfan has warned of an ‘international plot’ to overthrow Gulf systems of government with Western complicity. The Brotherhood, manipulated by the United States, is working to take over the Gulf by 2016, he said. ‘Today the Americans are mobilizing the Muslim Brotherhood in the Arab nation, for the benefit of America, not the Arabs,’ he wrote on his Twitter account on Sunday. ‘There is an American plan that has been drawn up for the region.’ Though Khalfan insists his tweets are his personal views, analysts and diplomats say they reflect largely unspoken concerns among the United Arab Emirates’ ruling elite about the regional popularity of the Islamists and the possibility that the West will sympathize with them as political underdogs. They also reflect fears among the region’s Sunni Muslim rulers that, despite being Sunni itself, the Brotherhood is soft on their arch enemy Shi’ite Iran.Read the rest here.
A post from April reported that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had detained six members of the local Muslim Brotherhood whose citizenship had been revoked on the basis of belonging to groups that fund terrorists. A post from March reported that the police chief of Dubai had threatened to arrest Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi who criticized the UAE for revoking the visas of Syrians demonstrating against the regime in Damascus