The Differences Between Saudi Arabia And the UAE from an Ideological Viewpoint by Brian H.Hayden

05:28 AM September, 12 2017

Sudanese Online
Brian H.Hayden-UK
My Library
Short URL

Relations between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and its quality have always kept the Middle East experts thought busy to itself. Because of the real quiddity of the relations between these two countries, under the influence of conflicts and the common understanding points, is very ambiguous and has its different ups and downs.
For example, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh are of the same opinion in some cases such as confronting the Muslim Brotherhood and Yemen's Ansar Allah and stopping the expansionist policies of some Middle Eastern countries and the need for a final settlement of the Palestinian question. however, issues such as Yemen as the southern gate of the Red Sea and the strategic Suez Canal are changed into the place of strife and challenge between two countries leaders.
The emirate at the time of Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al-Nahyan, due to its newness and the need for domestic stability and establishment, was pursuing an unbiased policy to have friendly relations with all the countries of the world.
After the death of Sheikh Zayed, Khalifa bin Zayed announced that the UAE–Saudi border agreement, which now Abu Dhabi explicitly called "cruel", should be reviewed.
In 1974, the United Arab Emirates, in order to expedite to be recognized officially, signed a land agreement with Saudi Arabia which came to be known as the Jeddah Agreement.
Emirate officials emphasize on this point that " Some exceptional conditions" have forced them to make such an agreement which has led to "the UAE's apparent loss" and the surrender of 80 percent of the Shaybah oil field and Khawr al Udayd to Saudi Arabia.
These border disputes turned into a crisis named "the UAE Ground Siege" by Saudi Arabia in 2009.The peak of this tension occurred when two Emirati patrol boats targeted a Saudi boat in Khawr al Udayd and arrested two Saudi border guards.
after the death of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan, his successors began their intervention plans to reduce Saudi influence in the east and west of the Arab world.
Although Saudi Arabia and the UAE were unanimous to frustrate the so-called Arab Spring revolutions, but the UAE tried behind the curtain to replace its allies with Saudi affiliates in countries like Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.
At this time, Yemen and the strategic port of Eden led to Publicize more and more the existing differences between these two countries.
Yemen has now become a full showcase of the Saudi-Emirates differences. Meanwhile, Emirates is trying to gain alone dominion over the strategic port of Aden. In this regard, different reports have been transmitted about the assassination of important people including leaders of Yemeni reformist party in the camp of Saudi Arabia.
Apart from the territorial disputes, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have deep ideological differences.
the origin of these differences is in the kind of look of rulers of the Emirate, which introduce themselves as " the only progressive option to alternate Saudi radical Islam".
In this regard, Mohammed bin Zayed the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi told Richard Haass that when he sees Nayef, he becomes more convinced that "Darwin was right," implying that Nayef was ape-like in character.
Emirati officials have been struggling to defeat Saudi ideology by offering a pleasant face of Emirati women against a haggard face of Saudi women.
Also, Mohammad bin Zayed said to a US Navy Commander: "The Emirates experiences significant advances and evolutions while its backward neighbor, Saudi Arabia, does not even permit 52 percent of its people to drive.
The UAE held a conference called "Definition of ahl as-sunnah wa l-jamāʻah (Arabic: ‏أهل السنة والجماعة‎‎)" in Grozny, the capital city of the Chechen Republic, to demonstrate Saudi Arabia's Salafi-Wahhabi Islam as radical Islam. In the latest statement of the conference, two schools of Wahhabi and Hanbali were not considered as ahl as-sunnah wa l-jamāʻah.
This matter provoked the anger of Saudi officials and forced them to warn Emirati authorities about such actions by holding the Mina conference in Mecca.The nations of the UAE and Saudi Arabia will be the only victims of the existing competition between both countries.
These two countries will reach a stage that not only they will give different economic and political privileges to others, but also they will build up the inverted image of each other for the world public opinion.This is while other countries consider them as "Milk Bull", which should be exploited them as much as possible.