LONDON: The United Arab Emirates is ready to take on more of the security burden in the Middle East because it can no longer rely on military operations by allies the United States and Britain, UAE minister Anwar Gargash said on Thursday.
"We are ready to take up more of the burden of security in our own neighbourhood," Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, said during a speech in London.
"We know that we can no longer rely on the United States, or the United Kingdom, to lead such military operations."
The UAE is concerned about divergence between Western powers over the future of relations with Iran, and sees the approach taken by the United States as favourable to European attempts to rescue a 2015 nuclear deal that lifted sanctions in exchange for curbs on Tehran's nuclear programme.
"We hope that United States pressure on Iran will bring it back to the negotiating table for an agreement wider than the JCPOA (the nuclear deal): one that addresses Iran’s ballistic missiles and regional meddling," Gargash added at the Policy Exchange think tank event.
Gargash added that an attack on Wednesday by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi rebels on two oil tankers in the Red Sea was totally irresponsible.
"This is a totally irresponsible act," he told the audience at the Policy Exchange think tank event in London on Thursday. "The effect of it actually is much wider than the region."
He added: "I think this is another example of why the Houthi takeover of the Yemeni government in Sanaa should end."
Saudi Arabia and Iran have been locked in a three-year proxy war in Yemen, which lies on one side of the Bab Al-Mandeb strait at the southern mouth of the sea, one of the most important trade routes for oil tankers heading from the Middle East to Europe.
The UAE is part of a Saudi-led coalition of Arab states fighting to gain control of the Houthi-controlled main port of Hodeidah.
"The only way forward is to get Hodeidah," Gargash said. "What we are planning to do is give diplomacy every possible chance to secure that."
