The United Arab Emirates is “aggressively” lobbying the Trump administration to designate Yemen’s Islah party as a terror organisation, a move that is likely to inflame tensions with Saudi Arabia which serves as a principal backer of the group.
US, Saudi and Yemeni sources told Middle East Eye that Abu Dhabi had spent the last four months pressuring Washington to label Islah as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) group, after telling the Trump administration that the January designations of three Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated groups did not go far enough.
Earlier this year, Washington designated the Muslim Brotherhood’s Egyptian, Jordanian and Lebanese branches as terror organisations, a move that elicited a laconic statement from Abu Dhabi.
The UAE described the decision as a step that “supports regional and international efforts to combat terrorism and extremism”.
Privately, however, Emirati officials were left fuming as the decision fell short of their long-standing aim to have the Muslim Brotherhood designated wholesale, a campaign Abu Dhabi has waged for more than a decade across Washington and European capitals.
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A US official, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, told MEE that the UAE “genuinely believed” that the Trump administration could at some point press ahead with the proscription.
It was unclear whether UAE officials had discussed a timeline with their US counterparts, but should the White House label Islah as a SDGT entity, it would require US financial institutions to freeze any assets linked to the party and would bar its members from entering the country.
‘Islah is a Yemeni party, and it isn’t a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. It doesn’t have any links with them’
– Islah member
The US official declined to discuss how the lobbying efforts would be perceived in Saudi Arabia, but said if the Emirates had lobbied for the the more severe FTO label it could trigger an angry response from the Saudis.
The Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) label would mean that anyone in the US or abroad who is suspected of providing support or resources to Islah could be prosecuted under various US laws, including those banning material support for terrorism.
An informed Saudi source, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said the kingdom was acutely aware that “the UAE wanted all Muslim Brotherhood branches banned, but in particular Islah”.
“They see Islah as the most dangerous branch of the Brotherhood because of its political weight and its role in Yemen,” he told MEE.
Formally known as the Yemeni Congregation for Reform, Islah was founded more than three decades ago and combines Islamist, tribal and conservative values in its political messaging.
Often described as ideologically close to the Muslim Brotherhood, the party denies any links to the group and has operated as an independent Yemeni political actor.
Two of Yemen’s eight-member Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) are members of Islah, with Sultan Ali al-Arada, the governor of Marib province, and Abdullah al-Alimi Bawazeer sitting on the Saudi-backed body.
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The UAE, however, has repeatedly accused Islah of being aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood, and has sought to marginalise it politically and militarily by backing rival forces such as the Southern Transitional Council (STC).
Although Saudi Arabia and the UAE entered the Yemen war as coalition partners, their strategic goals have diverged substantially since then.
Ties between the erstwhile allies have been strained for years but tensions erupted in spectacular fashion in December when the kingdom forced through the dissolution of the STC.
Riyadh has since moved to evict the UAE and its local proxies from the country.
Across the Red Sea, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are also at loggerheads over Sudan, where the kingdom, along with Turkey and Egypt, backs the Sudanese army against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which is primarily supported by Abu Dhabi.
UAE’s deep ideological-driven agenda
The Saudi source said that following the Trump administration’s executive order in November, which began the process of designating certain chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood as terror groups, the State Department began liaising with regional stakeholders about whether to blacklist Islah.
The Trump administration reportedly sent a list of questions to Saudi officials about Islah as part of its internal deliberations, while similar questions were also directed to the party itself.
A State Department official declined to comment on the outreach, telling MEE that the agency does “not comment on internal deliberations”.
So far, Islah has not commented on the lobbying offensive, but one of the group’s members told MEE that the party was not surprised by Abu Dhabi’s moves.
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“We expected certain people to come after us after the Trump administration first unveiled the directive in November,” he said.
The member, who requested anonymity due to a recent spike in assassinations, said the group was in the process of pushing back against the allegations and was liaising with the State Department via an intermediary.
“Islah is a Yemeni party, and it isn’t a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. It doesn’t have any links with them,” he said.
“We are happy with what the Muslim Brotherhood is doing in supporting Palestine, but that doesn’t mean Islah is a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood,” he added.
Abdullah al-Arian, an associate professor of history at Georgetown University, School of Foreign Service in Qatar, said that while both Riyadh and Abu Dhabi had designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a terror group, the Emirates had adopted a “zero tolerance policy” when liaising with any of its offshoots, “irrespective of what short -term political advantages it might offer”.
“There is a far deeper, ideologically driven agenda on the part of the UAE that we don’t see necessarily manifesting from the Saudis.
“Not because the Saudis are more amenable to these groups or their actual political projects or programmes, but more because they see in them the possibilities for tactical political advantages,” he added.
MEE reached out to the UAE embassy in Washington and Saudi foreign ministry for comment but did not receive a response by time of publication.
