Saudi Arabia, UAE forges multi-pronged partnership

The “great” meeting on Wednesday between Saudi Arabia and the UAE in the kingdom confirms what’s already been confirmed, renews the renewed and deepens the bases on which the pillars of power, wisdom, decisiveness and determination between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi stand.

“The decisiveness strategy” which Saudi Arabia and the UAE launched and which is based on 44 projects represent a joint strategy for integration between the two countries on the economic, developmental and military levels.

For instance, the military aspect of this alliance and the unique integration includes several initiatives of which the most important are the joint manufacturing of traditional ammunition, light weapons, vehicles, directed systems, electronic shooting systems and cooperation and coordination in foreign military aid and in the field of maintaining the military system and unifying the specifications and standards in the military industries.

We are before a frank declaration and a clear maturation of the Riyadh-Abu Dhabi alliance which has saved plenty of what can be saved from regional and local security – an alliance that strongly seeks to deter three major threats.

The first one is the security threat represented in the Khomeinist Iran and its gangs and the Muslim Brotherhood and its branches including al-Qaeda and ISIS.

The second one is the developmental threat or the economic challenge as the UAE and Saudi Arabia have combined their journeys on this path like a harmonious orchestra.

The third one is the media and cultural threat via accessing the media and culture arenas in an offensive not defensive manner, and what’s coming will have a bigger impact.

Core of this alliance

The core of this alliance is Saudi Arabia and the UAE but we must also note that there is Bahrain and Egypt which are the two remaining sides of this strong Arab square that angers Khomeinism and its followers and the Brotherhood and its groups and their supporters in Doha and Istanbul.

Hence came Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi’s comments on the Saudi-Emirati alliance sponsored by Mohammed bin Salman and Mohammed bin Zayed and blessed by King Salman and Sheikh Khalifa.

Sisi commended the results of the Saudi-Emirati Coordination Council’s first meeting in Jeddah on Wednesday, and which was chaired by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, and confirmed Egypt’s full support to the efforts of strengthening joint ties between the two countries.

“I value this step hoping (the best) of luck towards the welfare and stability of all our people, and I assert that the achieved results represent a model that’s followed in strengthening joint Arab work in all fields,” the Egyptian president added.

This article is also available in Arabic.

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Saudi journalist Mashari Althaydi presents Al Arabiya News Channel’s “views on the news” daily show “Maraya.” He has previously held the position of a managing senior editor for Saudi Arabia & Gulf region at pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat. Althaydi has published several papers on political Islam and social history of Saudi Arabia. He appears as a guest on several radio and television programs to discuss the ideologies of extremist groups and terrorists. He tweets under @MAlthaydy.