The Ansar Allah attack launched against the United Arab Emirates on the 17th not only exposed the weaknesses of Abu Dhabi but has since revealed the level to which the UAE has made itself a key player in the Middle East in the eyes of Washington.

Following an attack on Abu Dhabi, which resulted in the deaths of three workers, the US Biden administration was quick to jump to the support of their Persian Gulf ally, stating that they support the right of the UAE to respond to the Ansar Allah movement. Later that same day, however, Saudi-led coalition warplanes had already launched a devastating assault on Yemen’s Capital Sana’a, in the single worst attack that had taken place since 2019, killing at least 20 people.

Interestingly, although Saudi Arabia routinely comes under drone and ballistic missile attacks from Yemen’s Ansar Allah, no such reaction from the United States has seemed to have come as it has for the first significant Yemeni strikes on Abu Dhabi. The US has even vowed to hold Ansar Allah accountable for the “terrorist attack” as they describe it, whilst Washington’s ally "Israel" has also vowed to offer the UAE security and intelligence support in order to combat Yemen’s resistance movement. This could mean that further US drone strikes may well be authorized in Yemen and that "Israel" may shift towards playing a more open role in the war.

Speaking at a recent press conference, the American President Joe Biden also stated that his administration is mulling the decision as to whether they should again designate Ansar Allah as a terrorist organisation. Biden had reversed an 11th hour decision from the former Trump administration to proscribe the group, on the grounds of both finding a peaceful solution to the conflict and the problem this designation causes for international aid groups supplying the civilian population during the world's number one humanitarian catastrophe. What this strong support from the US shows is that Abu Dhabi is clearly a vital asset and/or exercises great lobbying efforts in Washington.

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Despite the fact that former US President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee head, Thomas Barrack, had been indicted - along with two co-conspirators - for acting as an unregistered agent of Abu Dhabi, the Biden administration has refused to attempt to revise its relationship with the UAE. The case against Tom Barrack is simply one of many examples of the Emirati government using agents and pressuring Washington illegally to shape US regional policy as it pertains to it. But the fact that the UAE was to an extent literally controlling Donald Trump’s decision making, a trope that was regularly ascribed by the Democratic Party elites to Russia, is in of itself damning to Democrat partisan media which have completely ignored a real foreign influence story.

In this case, the Biden administration has even gone so far as to reverse both of their key decisions announced last February when it comes to the Yemen war; firstly that they would no longer support Saudi offensive action, and secondly that they would cancel relevant arms sales. Not only were arms deals set to go forth with the UAE approved last year, but a new arms sale worth over 600 million dollars to Riyadh was additionally approved and now the American’s are again openly justifying offensive actions committed against Yemen.

Notably, Yousef al-Otaiba, the UAE’s ambassador to Washington revealed that the scale of the attack was more serious than originally reported by Abu Dhabi’s officials, stating further details about the Ansar Allah attack when speaking at an event organized by the Washington based think-tank called the Jewish Institute for National Security of America. The think-tank is aligned with the "Israel" Lobby in the United States and especially since the signing of the normalization agreement between "Israel" and the UAE, the merging of lobbying efforts seems to have taken shape.

On Middle East and even wider issues, the UAE and "Israel" align perfectly, making the relationship between the two extremely workable. This means that when the Emirati Lobby in Washington puts its weight and money behind an effort to pressure the US government, it may also find itself backed by the powerful AIPAC Lobby. Additionally, the UAE has acquired significant regional power in the Middle East, largely through its crusade against Muslim Brotherhood aligned governments and Parties. The UAE helped in the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi for instance, gaining itself a strong presence in the decision making processes of the Egyptian state, now ran by Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, who came to power not only after having meetings with Mohammed Dahlan, the right hand man of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed, but was also propped up by Saudi, Emirati and to a lesser extent Kuwaiti cash. Similar situations of the UAE interfering in the affairs of Sudan, Qatar, Yemen, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya and even Turkey, have earned it a strong position regionally.

For the United States, not only Lobbying and influence campaigns - legal and illegal - but also the strength of the Emirati intelligence and pressure network in the Middle East, Africa, and even Serbia, make it a vital strategic ally for the Whitehouse and Pentagon. This has become very apparent in recent years, that the UAE is essentially a new "Israel" for the United States to use in its imperialist game in the region and so any attack against it will spark a big backlash. Equally however, the Ansar Allah have proven that they are ready and willing to engage with their enemies on multiple fronts and if "Israel" seeks to get involved in the war, then their shipping through the Red Sea as well as their cities in Southern occupied Palestine may well come under fire from ballistic missiles, a genuine fear felt by policy makers in Tel Aviv.