UAE abolishes law boycotting Israel

Straits Times - AFP - August 30, 2020

Protesters wave a United Arab Emirates flag during an anti-government demonstration
 in front of the Prime Minister's residence in Jerusalem. - Protests demanding that
 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resign over several corruption indictments
and his handling of the coronavirus crisis have been mounting in recent weeks, and
the premier has been scathing in his counter-attack. (Photo by Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP)

DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates announced on Saturday it had repealed legislation imposing a boycott of Israel after the two countries struck a US-brokered deal to normalise relations.

UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan issued a federal decree "abolishing the Federal Law No. 15 of 1972 regarding boycotting Israel and the penalties thereof", the official WAM news agency reported.

"It will be permissible to enter, exchange or possess Israeli goods and products of all kinds in the UAE and trade in them."

The UAE will be the first Gulf state and only the third Arab country to establish full diplomatic ties with Israel – a move condemned by the Palestinians as a betrayal.

Companies and individuals in the UAE may now enter into agreements with firms or individuals residing in Israel, WAM reported.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the decision in a statement later on Saturday.

"This is an important move to advance prosperity and peace in the region," he said.

The UAE move comes ahead of the arrival of an Israeli-American delegation to Abu Dhabi on the first commercial flight from Israel on Monday.

The delegation, led by top aide and son-in-law to US President Donald Trump Jared Kushner and Israeli National Security Advisor Meir Ben Shabbat, will seek ways to boost cooperation in areas including aviation, tourism, trade, health, energy and security, according to Netanyahu's office..

Israel and UAE to normalise ties in 'historic' US-brokered deal

Yahoo – AFP, Mohamad Ali Harissi and Sarah Stewart, August 13, 2020

Dubai's Burj Khalifa, the tallest structure in the world, and a symbol of the oil-rich UAE

Israel and the UAE agreed Thursday to normalise ties in a landmark US-brokered deal, only the third such accord the Jewish state has struck with an Arab nation, in which it pledged to suspend annexation of Palestinian lands.

The bombshell news was broken by US President Donald Trump, in a tweet hailing a "HUGE breakthrough" and a "Historic Peace Agreement between our two GREAT friends".

Establishing diplomatic ties between Israel and Washington's Middle East allies, including the oil-rich Gulf monarchies, has been central to Trump's regional strategy to contain Iran, also an arch-foe of Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was a "historic day" and would launch a "new era" for the Arab world and Israel.

US President Donald Trump announced the agreement between the United 

Arab Emirates and Israel to normalize diplomatic ties

The Palestinians strongly rejected the deal, calling it a "betrayal" of their cause, including their claim to Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

They also announced they were withdrawing their ambassador from the Emirates, and demanded an emergency Arab League meeting.

Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which runs the coastal Gaza Strip, quickly said the agreement "does not serve the Palestinian cause".

A joint statement by Trump, Netanyahu and UAE's leader Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan announced that they had "agreed to the full normalisation of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates".

It added that Israel would "suspend declaring sovereignty" over occupied Palestinian West Bank areas -- an idea proposed in Trump's controversial earlier plan to resolve the conflict.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was a "historic day" and 

represented a "new era" for the Arab world and Israel

Sheikh Mohamed quickly stressed in a tweet that "during a call with President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu, an agreement was reached to stop further Israeli annexation of Palestinian territories".

But Netanyahu said shortly afterwards in a national television address that he had only agreed to delay, not cancel, the annexations, that the plans remained "on the table" and that he would "never give up our rights to our land".

The controversial Trump plan, unveiled in January, had offered a path for Israel to annex territory and Jewish West Bank settlements, communities considered illegal under international law.

The Palestinians rejected it outright as biased and untenable, as did Israel's Arab neighbours, and it sparked fears of further escalation in a tense region. 

Protestors confront Israeli forces as a structure serving as a home to a 

Palestinian family is demolished in the southern West Bank on August 11

'Things are happening'

Israel has had difficult relations and several wars with its Muslim and Arab neighbours since its founding in 1948, with most states ruling out relations until the Israeli-Palestinian dispute is resolved.

Thursday's deal would make the UAE only the third Arab country to establish formal diplomatic ties with Israel, after its peace deals with former enemies Egypt and Jordan.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt, which signed a treaty with Israel in 1979 to opposition from across the Arab world, praised the deal on "the halt of Israel's annexation of Palestinian land," and said he hoped it would bring "peace".

The deal marks a major foreign policy achievement for Trump as he heads into a difficult campaign for re-election in November.

The city hall in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv is lit up in the colours of

the United Arab Emirates national flag

His presumptive Democratic challenger for the presidency Joe Biden welcomed the "historic" agreement and called the UAE's move a "badly-needed act of statesmanship".

Trump hinted to reporters that more diplomatic breakthroughs between Israel and Arab countries in the region were expected, but gave no further details.

"Things are happening that I can't talk about," he said.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described it as "a historic day and a significant step forward for peace in the Middle East".

"The United States hopes that this brave step will be the first in a series of agreements that ends 72 years of hostilities in the region," Pompeo said, adding that the formal agreement would be signed at the White House at a future date.

Dubai's Burj Khalifa, the tallest structure in the world, and a symbol of the oil-rich UAE

Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, told AFP the deal was "a milestone in Arab acceptance of Israel in the region".

It was also be "a brake on annexation, which would jeopardise Israel's peace with Jordan and Israel's own future as a Jewish, democratic state", he said. 

'Annexation trap'

Israeli and UAE delegations will meet in the coming weeks to discuss investment, tourism, direct flights, security and the establishment of embassies, they said.

The trio were confident of further similar deals with other countries, their statement added.

Israeli and UAE delegations will meet in the coming weeks to discuss investment,

tourism, direct flights, security and the establishment of reciprocal embassies

The UAE's minister of state for foreign affairs Anwar Gargash told a media briefing that "most countries will see this as a bold step to secure a two-state solution, allowing time for negotiations".

Hours after the deal was announced, the Emirati flag was projected onto Tel Aviv's town hall.

Aaron David Miller, a veteran US negotiator on the Middle East peace process and analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, called the deal a "win for all".

"(The) UAE says it's prevented annexation; US prevents annexation too and gets big breakthrough and Netanyahu gets enormous win and off hook from the annexation trap," he tweeted.

Pope Francis and other religious leaders at the Vatican. Photograph: AP

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Lebanon president hedges over eventual peace with Israel in interview - New

"The End of History" – Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Muhammad, Jesus, God, Jews, Arabs, EU, US, Israel, Iran, Russia, Africa, South America, Global Unity,..... etc.) (Text version)

" ..... Abraham, Father of the Jews

I want to honor Abraham [Abram], born in Ur, which is now part of modern Iraq, and I want to honor his sons, not all born of Sara. The one I wish to speak of is Ishmael. Abraham is Jewish... the great Jewish prophet. Ishmael is his son. There's no way that you could say Ishmael was not Jewish, and he is even to this day. Ishmael was born in Hebron. So in addition, he is very Israeli. Ishmael is a Jew.

Now some would argue, due to how the Jewish lineage is computed by men [mother's side]. But Spirit looks at the DNA and the Akashic lineage, so spiritually, Ishmael is a Jew. He came in to be part of the lineage of the Jews.

He fell from favor even with the Jewish people early on for political reasons. Then Ishmael went on to become that which is the ancestor of all Arabs... the father of Arabia. Therefore, you could say that the Arabs are with Jewish blood, that of Abraham flowing through them. But early on, the Jews cast Ishmael out. So although you have the one God and monotheism, and you have the principle of the love of God and the unity of God, there was a split. The truth was mixed with untruths and, even to this day, there would be a billion Human Beings who would say it was Ishmael and not Isaac who was almost sacrificed at the Temple Mount. They would also say that he is not a Jew.

So what is the truth here? Human Beings were not built to unify. In an older energy on the planet from those days, and even the days that you were born in, the energy laid upon you is for you to separate, not unify. And that is why we call it the old energy. Oh, they were wise men and women who knew better, but it is the old energy that separates and divides, and it is the old energy that has created the divisions of hatred within millions of those who are actually "all Jews."

Muhammad's Beautiful Message of Unity

Let me tell you about Muhammad, the prophet. Muhammad is of the lineage of Ishmael, who is of the lineage of Abraham. Therefore, Muhammad had Jewish blood, so that was his lineage but not necessarily his culture. But his Akashic lineage was from Abraham. [Abraham is the founder of Islam, according to the Quran.]

Muhammad had a beautiful meeting, more than one, with an angelic presence. The angels talked to humanity back then in basic 3D ways. But how many of you have put together that most of the angels in that time who spoke to Human Beings talked to those of Jewish lineage? Like Muhammad, like Moses, like Jesus, like Abraham. For this was part of a set-up of history, part of what makes the Jewish lineage important to the core Akash of humanity, and we have spoken before, "As go the Jews, go Earth." Indeed, there is something there to look at which is important, and it is going to change soon. For in our eyes, the "Jews" are all those in the Middle East.

Muhammad's information from the angel was this: "Unify the Arabs and give them the God of Israel." And he did! The information he had was beautiful and was written down later for his followers. It was all about the incredible love of God and the unity of man. Muhammad the prophet was a unifier, not a separatist.

Long before Muhammad, there came Jesus - Jesus the Jew. He became responsible for what you would call Christianity today. All of his disciples were Jewish. The Rock, Peter the fisherman, who started the Christian church, was Jewish. And we tell you these things to remind you that there's a unity here. Perhaps there is a reason, dear ones, why the 12 layers of DNA have Hebrew names? Indeed, it's in honor of the masters and the lineage, including that of Muhammad, of Ishmael, of Isaac, of Abraham and of Jesus. All of them, part of the original spiritual language [Hebrew].

"Oh," you might say, "there was Sumerian and before that there was Lemurian. There was Sanskrit and Tamil, and many other older languages." Correct, but we're speaking of a language of today - one that you can relate to, that has power, and that is spoken today by the pure lineage of the masters who walked the planet.

So what did humanity do with all this? What did they do with all this sacred information from these Jewish masters? They went to war, because Humans separate things. They don't put them together. So here we are with one beautiful God, creator of all there is, and millions who believe that very thing, yet they are going to war with each other over ideology about what God said, which prophet was best, and which group is in God's favor. That's ancient history, thousands of years old. But it shows exactly what the old energy is all about. ..."

Princess Haya: champion for women's rights

Yahoo – AFP, July 30, 2019

Jordanian royal Princess Haya has long championed causes close to her heart
including youth and education (AFP Photo/Tolga AKMEN)

London (AFP) - An Olympic horse rider and a trailblazer for women's rights, Jordanian royal Princess Haya has long championed causes close to her heart including youth and education.

In a highly unusual move, the half-sister of Jordan's King Abdullah II attended a London court Tuesday where she is locked in a legal battle with her husband the ruler of Dubai.

She applied for a UK forced marriage protection order relating to their children as well as requesting their wardship, in addition to calling for a non-molestation order relating to herself.

The court also heard that her husband Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, the prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, has applied to the High Court for the summary return of the children to Dubai.

Haya was reportedly his sixth wife, and the 70-year-old prince is believed to have more than 20 children.

Now aged 45, Haya, the daughter of the late King Hussein of Jordan, married her husband in 2004 and told AFP a year later that she believed Emirati women were "an example of a modern Muslim woman".

"In my work and in our family gatherings I have closely been watching women in the Emirates, and I am in great admiration of them... and I never fail to be amazed at the way in which they combine modernity with Arab and Muslim traditions," she said.

"They are proof to me that an Arab woman can be modern without feeling the need to be Westernised."

The princess was appointed a United Nations messenger of peace in 2007, and was the first Arab and first woman to serve as a Goodwill Ambassador for the World Food Programme (2005-2007).

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum married Princess 

Haya bint al-Hussein in 2004 (AFP Photo/KARIM SAHIB)

She has long championed women's rights, telling Emirates Woman magazine in 2016 that: "Women need to realise their strength."

"So many great women before us and among us have suffered greatly to carve a place for us in modern society that is today better than yesterday and will be better yet tomorrow if women are allowed to achieve their potential," she added.

Passion for horses

Speaking of her husband, she professed: "Every day I am amazed by the things he does. Every single day I thank God that I am lucky enough to be close to him."

She told the magazine that she also enjoyed falconry, shooting and fast cars.

But it was her passion for horses and equestrianism, along with poetry, that united Princess Haya with the Dubai prince.

She headed Jordan's equestrian team before her marriage and remains a keen rider -- something which she has in common with the British royal family, with whom she is reportedly close friends.

Haya became one of the first women athletes to represent her country at an international level, winning a bronze medal at the Pan-Arab Equestrian Games in 1992.

"We share a great passion for horses and equestrian affairs, and that was actually one of the main issues we shared in common when we first met," Haya told AFP in 2005.

A file photo taken on September 5, 2018 shows Jordan's Princess Haya 

bint al-Hussein (AFP Photo/Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS)

"As time passed, we soon realised that we also share a passion for poetry and writing as well, for Muslim and Arab history and culture, and for preserving and enhancing our traditions. Much of both of our work is dedicated to this end," she said.

Late last year, Haya also hit the headlines when she invited former UN human rights chief Mary Robinson to meet with Sheikh Mohammed's daughter Latifa, who was captured at sea in March 2018 after trying to flee the UAE.

In a video uploaded to YouTube in March 2018, Latifa, who was then 32, said she was fleeing mistreatment and restrictions imposed by her father's family.

Oxford graduate

Issues relating to youth, as well as health and education, are dear to Haya.

"My work in these sectors is another way to ensure that I am in touch with people at the grassroots level, and this is of utmost importance to me," she said.

Her mother, Queen Alia, was killed in a helicopter crash in February 1977 as she was returning from a visit to a health centre in southern Jordan.

In her mother's memory, Princess Haya set up Tkiyet Um Ali in 2003, the first food aid NGO in the Arab world.

Born and raised in Jordan, Haya was educated in elite British private schools and graduated from St Hilda's College at the University of Oxford with a degree in politics, philosophy and economics.

Princess Haya of Jordan -- embroiled in a bitter legal battle with her husband the ruler of Dubai -- has received support from her brother in the form of a photo on Twitterhttps://t.co/GhS2xMO2oJ

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 1 augustus 2019

Afghanistan sends team to join Taliban peace talks in UAE

Yahoo – AFP, 18 December 2018

The meetings between the US and the Taliban are the latest in a flurry of diplomatic
efforts as Washington seeks a way out of the conflict, which began with the US
invasion in 2001

An Afghan peace negotiations team has arrived in Abu Dhabi, an official said Tuesday, a day after talks attended by US and Taliban representatives were held in the city aimed at ending the 17-year conflict.

The team, led by chief negotiator Abdul Salam Rahimi, "arrived in Abu Dhabi to begin proximity dialogue with the Taliban delegation and to prepare for a face-to-face meeting between the two sides", the Afghan presidential spokesman Haroon Chakhansuri tweeted.

The 12-person team was first announced in November by President Ashraf Ghani as part of a diplomatic effort to bring the Taliban to the table for peace talks with the government in Kabul.

But the Taliban have not confirmed a meeting, and issued a statement on Monday reiterating their long-standing vow not to speak with Afghan officials.

In a new message released Tuesday the militants said they had held "preliminary talks" with the US State Department's special envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, on Monday, with the discussions to continue.

They also said they had held "extensive" meetings with officials from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and the UAE, repeating demands for international forces to be withdrawn from Afghanistan.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Pakistan were the only three countries to recognise the Taliban government during its five-year rule from 1996-2001.

The US did not confirm direct meetings between Khalilzad and the Taliban in Abu Dhabi.

Late Monday Washington said meetings were ongoing in the UAE city "to promote an intra-Afghan dialogue toward ending the conflict", and that Khalilzad was in the region.

Khalilzad "has in the past met, and will continue to meet with all interested parties, including the Taliban, to support a negotiated settlement to the conflict", it continued.

The meetings are the latest in a flurry of diplomatic efforts as Washington seeks a way out of the conflict, which began with the US invasion in 2001.

Khalilzad, who has expressed hopes for a deal to be in place before Afghaninstan's presidential election scheduled for April next year, has made several trips to the region since his appointment in September.

On this trip the State Department said he is also visiting Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Qatar, and Belgium, where he tweeted that he had met with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

The international community has been optimistic about the possibility of talks.

"The possibility of a negotiated end to the conflict has never been more real in the past 17 years than it is now," the head of the UN mission in Afghanistan, Tadamichi Yamamoto, told the UN Security Council in New York on Monday.

But the Taliban have upped assaults on Afghan forces even as the US increases diplomatic efforts, with thousands of people displaced by fighting.

Civilians continue to face "extreme levels of harm", a recent UN report said, with 8,050 people killed or wounded in the January to September period this year.

Qatar-Gulf deal forces expulsion of Muslim Brotherhood leaders

Move comes under heavy pressure from Saudi Arabia, UAE and other neighbours, with threat posed by Isis used as lever

theguardian.com, Ian Black, Middle East editor, Tuesday 16 September 2014

The Qatari capital, Doha, is is seen by the Egyptian government and its conservative
Gulf backers as a centre of subversive Islamist activity. Photograph: Rex Features

Qatar has pledged to expel exiled leaders of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood as one of the conditions of an agreement forced on the wealthy Gulf state by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other neighbours.

In a move that reflects shifting political alignments in a deeply divided Middle East, seven senior Brotherhood figures were ordered at the weekend to leave Doha, which is seen by the Egyptian government and its conservative Gulf backers as a centre of subversive Islamist activity. They include its acting leader, Mahmoud Hussein, and two other senior colleagues.

Qatar also agreed to stop attacking Egypt in al-Jazeera broadcasts. The TV network is based in Doha and is seen across the region as a reflecting the emirate's policies and preferences.

The conditions were part of an agreement signed in Riyadh in November 2013 and designed to patch up an angry quarrel in which Qatar was blamed for backing the Brotherhood in Egypt and Islamist groups from the neighbouring UAE to Libya. It has never been made public, and until recently had not been implemented.

Fears about the threat from Islamic State (Isis) in Iraq and Syria helped to convince Qatar to back down, diplomats said.

Turkish media reported that the country's president, Recep Tayep Erdoğan, had extended a welcome to the exiled leaders. Amr Darrag, the Brotherhoods's foreign relations officer, has already arrived in Turkey, according to al-Jazeera Turk. Gamal Abdul Sattar, the former deputy head of Egypt's religious affairs directorate, was planning to move to Istanbul, it said.

For the last four years Qatar and Turkey have been the chief backers of the Islamist movements that flourished during the Arab spring uprisings only to experience crushing defeat in Egypt when the Brotherhood's democratically-elected president Mohammed Morsi was overthrown by the army. Morsi's fall was openly supported by the other Gulf states and implicitly backed by the west. Under his successor, Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi, hundreds of Brotherhood supporters have been killed or imprisoned and the group has been outlawed as a terrorist organisation.

The departure of the Egyptian Brotherhood leaders from Doha was announced at the weekend and described as intended to spare Qatar embarrassment.

Details of the Riyadh deal, revealed by Gulf sources, underline the heavy pressure brought to bear. In March, in one of the worst spats the region has seen in recent years, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain all withdrew their ambassadors from Doha. Kuwait and Oman, the other two members of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), are less hawkish. Riyadh tried to impose new conditions, including the closure of US thinktanks based in Doha. "The Saudis wanted to go beyond the original agreement and dictate to the Qataris, and the Qataris said no," said a well-placed Arab source.

Palestinian sources denied reports on Tuesday that the Hamas leader, Khaled Meshal, had also been asked to leave Doha. Qatar has played an important role backing the group, which is linked to but distinct from the Muslim Brotherhood. Israel has attacked Qatar in recent weeks for its support for Hamas. Doha has also been under fire for alleged links with Isis, which it has flatly denied. Like Saudi Arabia, it backed Islamist groups in Syria, some of which morphed over time into Isis.

Pressure on Qatar to implement the Riyadh agreement peaked in late August, when the Saudi foreign minister, interior minister and intelligence chief visited Doha. On 6 September, Qatar was given one further week to begin implementation.

"The Qataris have been forced into a situation where they have had to step back," said Michael Stephens of the Doha office of the Royal United Services Institution. "They tried as best they could to maintain their foreign policy without interference from other parties, but they were always going to have to make some kind of compromise. I am only suprised it has taken so long.

"This is a big deal in terms of understanding the balance of power in the Gulf. There's definitely a sense that they have to give some ground, that they can't just be this maverick state with its fingers in so many pies in the region."

Qatar has signalled that it will continue to support the Brotherhood more discreetly, while backing Gulf-wide efforts to fight Isis.

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Arab states offer to help attack Isis, diplomats say

Countries believed to include the UAE and Saudi Arabia are prepared to fight Islamic State in major boost to the US

theguardian.com, Ian Black and Martin Chulov, Sunday 14 September 2014

John Kerry said the US had Arab allies who were prepared to join in strikes
on Isis. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AP

Several Arab states, believed to include the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, have offered to help attack Islamic State (Isis) targets in Syria and Iraq, in a major boost for US efforts to build a broad coalition against the Sunni insurgent group.

The offers, reported by senior western diplomats, came in the wake of widespread international condemnation of the murder of the British hostage, David Haines, and a pledge by Australia to help the military effort. John Kerry, the US secretary of state, said on Sunday he was "extremely encouraged" by pledges made so far. Kerry is to join Iraqi, Arab and other western ministers at a conference in Paris on Monday to agree ways to support the new Baghdad government in the war against the jihadi group. Arab participation in military action would help give a wider sense of legitimacy to the campaign.

US officials declined to say which countries had offered help, but one appeared to be the UAE, whose aircraft recently bombed Islamist militia targets in Libya from bases in Egypt.

A senior western source told the Guardian that Saudi Arabia felt so threatened by Isis that it was prepared to act in a frontline role. "There is a very real possibility that we could have the Saudi air force bombing targets inside Syria. That is a remarkable development, and something the US would be very pleased to see."

Another senior official said that Saudi Arabia was now far more willing to play an open role in the campaign against Isis than during the 1991 Gulf war and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In both previous campaigns, Riyadh allowed its military bases to be used by US forces, but did not commit its own troops or airmen.

This time, Riyadh sees Isis as a direct threat to Saudi Arabia. "They actually see themselves as the real target. "They know that they have to step up, and they are ready to, from what we can see," the official said.

A US official told the New York Times that the US Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, had received offers from several Arab states. "There have been offers both to Centcom and to the Iraqis of Arab countries taking more aggressive kinetic action."

France has indicated that it will back US air strikes against Isis after its president, François Hollande, expressed support for the Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, and moves to undercut Sunni support for Isis. But Turkey, which borders on both Iraq and Syria, has quietly made clear that it would not take part or allow its bases to be used for combat operations – a disappointment coming from Nato's only Muslim member.

Isis fighters during a parade in Raqqa, Syria. Photograph: AP

Syrian ministers have repeated calls for Damascus to join the coalition, though the US and Britain – backed by their Gulf allies – have insisted president Bashar al-Assad cannot take part because he has "lost all legitimacy" in the course of a war that has cost 200,000 lives.

Kerry said the US would not coordinate any attacks with Syria, but added in an interview on CBS's Face the Nation: "We will certainly want to deconflict and make certain that they're (Syria) not about to do something that they might regret even more seriously."

Britain will be represented at the Paris talks by Philip Hammond, the foreign secretary, with David Cameron facing conflicting pressures over whether to participate in air strikes or restrict the country to delivering humanitarian aid, surveillance, and arming and training Kurdish and Iraqi forces. Cameron made clear on Sunday that he supports US strikes and "whatever steps are necessary" while keeping options open. The Haines murder may change the dynamic of the arguments.

Details of how the anti-Isis campaign will be waged are still sketchy, though the US reportedly discussed basing and overflight rights at talks in Jeddah last week with the Saudis and the other Gulf states as well as Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt. All expressed support for a "coordinated military campaign".

"I can tell you right here and now that we have countries in this region, countries outside of this region, in addition to the United States, all of whom are prepared to engage in military assistance, in actual strikes if that is what it requires," Kerry said.

Officials familiar with high level discussions between Riyadh and Washington say both sides are determined to avoid the perception in the Sunni world that the upcoming campaign will benefit Iran and its Shia and Alawite proxies. "The Saudis are the power base of the Sunni world and it is time for them to provide an alternative to Isis," said a regional official. "They know what is expected of them and this time you will see them acting directly."

Denis McDonough, the White House chief of staff, said that while air strikes would weaken Isis, "it's going to be Iraqi and other boots on the ground" that would the key to defeating the terrorists.

"To destroy Isil[Isis] we need to have a force, an anvil against which they will be pushed," McDonough said on CNN's State of the Union.

"It will be a coalition that includes not only our friends in Europe and Asia but also our partners in the region, Muslim states, Sunni states. We're going to use our unique capabilities, air power, ISR [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] and our training ability to make sure Iraqi forces on one side and Syrian opposition forces on the other side of the border can take the fight to Isil."

Obama's condemnation of Haines's murder was echoed in other capitals, with the German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, calling the killing "an abhorrent act of barbaric violence beyond all limits of human civilisation."

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Islamic State Fears Make Gulf Monarchies Set Aside Differences

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Sep 01, 2014

A man uses a video camera to film destroyed buildings in the in the northern
 city of Aleppo on Aug. 29, 2014, following a reported barrel bomb attack in the
area by Syrian government forces. (AFP Photo/AMC/Zein Rifai)

Dubai. Advances by jihadists in Syria and Iraq, and US calls for a coalition against them have made Gulf monarchies set aside disputes over Qatar’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood, analysts say.

Wary of spectacular gains made by Islamic State jihadists, the oil-rich monarchies fear the militants could advance towards their own borders, where the extreme ideologies could find support.

“The biggest danger [in the Gulf] comes now from these [emerging] terrorist groups, and not from the Muslim Brotherhood,” said Abdulaziz Sager, head of the Gulf Research Center think tank.

Qatar’s relations with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain sank to a new low in March when the three governments withdrew their ambassadors from Doha, accusing it of meddling in their affairs and supporting the Brotherhood — designated as “terrorist” by Riyadh.

For Sager, the UAE was “the strictest” against Qatar among the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.

UAE State Minister for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash wrote on Twitter on Sunday that his country’s interest lies “in a strong Arab Gulf … sheltered from regional differences.”

Speaking to reporters following a meeting of Gulf Arab foreign ministers, Kuwait’s top diplomat Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Sabah said that the six-months spat with Qatar was on its way to being resolved.

He said the ambassadors could return to their posts “at any time”, without giving a specific date.

The announcement came as Saudi King Abdullah underscored the threat posed by jihadists unless there is “rapid” action.

“Terrorism knows no border and its danger could affect several countries outside the Middle East,” Abdullah was quoted as telling ambassadors, including the US envoy, on Friday.

“If we ignore them, I am sure they will reach Europe in a month and America in another month,” he warned.

Saudi Arabia follows a strict version of Islamic Shariah law. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers who took part in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States were from the kingdom.

Saudi authorities have long feared blowback from jihadist groups, particularly after a spate of Al-Qaeda attacks in the kingdom from 2003 to 2006.

IS beliefs supported in Gulf

Kuwaiti political analyst Ayed al-Manaa agrees that “we now have a fear which is much bigger than the differences in foreign policies, with IS taking over one third of Syria and Iraq”.

“IS as an ideology is not only present in [Iraq and Syria]. It is present in our countries and is waiting for the opportunity to appear,” said Manaa.

“The political disputes [with Qatar] are no longer a priority … We live in danger from northeast Syria and northwest Iraq. This is an alarm bell for GCC nations to end their differences.”

GCC states on Saturday said they are ready to act “against terrorist threats that face the region and the world”.

The foreign ministers of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE — the six GCC states — also pledged a readiness to fight “terrorist ideology which is contrary to Islam”.

However, “we are waiting for more details to understand what is needed” for the coalition proposed by US President Barack Obama, said Sabah.

Obama said he was developing a broad plan that would involve military, diplomatic and regional efforts to defeat the IS jihadists who have sown terror through crucifixions and gruesome beheadings.

Obama said he would dispatch US Secretary of State John Kerry to the Middle East to discuss the plan with regional allies, including the Gulf Arab states.

Regional expert Frederic Wehrey said that “the GCC does not have the capacity for real expeditionary military operations outside the Gulf.

“The question is what military value would they bring beyond the symbolic legitimacy of Arab participation,” said Wehrey of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Sagar agrees, pointing out that the participation of GCC leader Saudi Arabia, would be limited to “intelligence” and the kingdom’s “ability in influencing public opinion in the Muslim world.”

Saudi Arabia’s top cleric has already branded Al-Qaeda and IS jihadists as “enemy number one” of Islam and warned young Muslims to steer clear of “calls for jihad” issued on “perverted” grounds.

Agence France-Presse

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