U.S., UAE have sensitive relationship

WASHINGTON --The United Arab Emirates is a U.S. military partner in the global war on terrorism, but the relationship is so politically sensitive in the UAE that the Pentagon does not openly discuss details.

The strategic importance of the UAE derives in large part from its location along the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow chokepoint for shipping in the Persian Gulf, a short distance from Iran's southern shores.

The UAE is the world's fifth-largest oil exporter.

Patrick Clawson, the deputy director of the Washington Institute for Near East policy, who lived in Dubai part of last year, said, "Dubai is a place with few rules, but one of the few things tightly regulated is port security, and that's why the U.S. Navy feels comfortable using Dubai more than any other port in the world."

Ironically, port security is at the heart of a Washington political storm over the Bush administration's decision to sell shipping operations at six major American seaports to a state-owned business in the UAE. Democrats and Republicans alike have protested, citing among other issues the UAE's support for the Taliban regime in Afghanistan before U.S. forces invaded and toppled the radical regime in the fall of 2001.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit the UAE on Thursday, the final stop on a three-nation tour of Arab countries.

Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters Tuesday that the military relationship is "superb," and that U.S. forces use UAE seaports and air fields for logistics support and for training of Air Force pilots. Pace was in the Persian Gulf nation two months ago for talks with senior UAE military officials.

"In everything that we have asked and worked with them on, they have proven to be very, very solid partners," Pace said.

Among the specifics that Pace did not mention:

-- Air Force U-2 spy planes and Global Hawk unmanned surveillance aircraft have been based at al-Dhafra air base, along with KC-10 aerial refueling planes. When a U-2 crashed in the UAE last June, killing the Air Force pilot, American officials did not publicly disclose the location "due to host nation sensitivities."

-- U.S. sailors and Marines regularly make liberty calls at the port of Jebel Ali, near the UAE's largest city, Dubai.

-- In March 2000 the UAE and the United States completed a sales agreement for 80 of the most sophisticated versions of the F-16 fighter jet.

-- The threat to commercial shipping in the Gulf during the "tanker war" between Iran and Iraq in the 1980s was the impetus for the United States to develop closer ties to the UAE. Ties grew much closer after Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990.

The formal basis for the U.S.-UAE military relationship is a defense cooperation agreement signed in 1994. As with most other American allies in the Persian Gulf, including Saudi Arabia, the presence of American troops in the UAE is either cloaked in a degree of secrecy or de-emphasized out of concern about anti-US sentiment.

The Pentagon will not say how many U.S. troops are based in the UAE.

In his book, "Code Names," military historian and author William Arkin wrote that during the 1990s the CIA established liaison relations with its UAE counterparts and pressured them to sever ties with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

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AP Diplomatic Writer Barry Schweid contributed to this report.