ABU DHABI (Middle East Eye) – The United Arab Emirates ordered construction work at a Chinese port project near Abu Dhabi to be halted after U.S. officials claimed that Beijing intended to use the site for military purposes, a senior Emirati official has said.
Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. spy agencies detected the excavation of a huge hole to accommodate a multi-story building at Khalifa Port, which sits some 80km north of Abu Dhabi.
According to the Journal, the Biden administration then pressured the UAE to halt construction at the site over suspicions the work had potential military purposes.
In the first public remarks by a UAE official on the matter, Anwar Gargash, a diplomatic adviser to the country’s leadership, told the Persian Gulf States Institute in Washington on Thursday that, following conversations with the White House, authorities “stopped work on the facilities”.
“But our position remains the same, that the facilities were not military facilities,” Gargash said, according to remarks published by the Journal.
The Journal reported last month that, after U.S. spy agencies discovered the nature of the work at the site, a series of meetings and visits by U.S. officials with their Emirati counterparts took place.
Speaking at the same forum, Brett McGurk, the National Security Council’s coordinator for the Middle East, didn’t specifically address the controversy, “We have made our position very clear about the types of activities that would jeopardize our ability to do things that our partners want,” referring to weapons sales and technology transfer to U.S. regional allies.
The Journal had claimed U.S. President Joe Biden expressed concern about China’s growing presence in the country during talks in May and August with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed (MBZ).
In one talk, Biden reportedly told MBZ that the U.S. feared China’s activity could have a detrimental impact on their partnership. MBZ replied he had heard the U.S. president “loud and clear”.
China’s embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment, the Journal said.
While the U.S. is the largest arms supplier to the Middle East, with exports increasing by 28 percent between 2016 and 2020, China’s economic influence has grown in the region largely due to investments and construction projects via its Belt and Road Initiative.
China has also billed itself as a partner for nearly every country in the region, pursuing infrastructure projects in Egypt and Saudi Arabia and developing strong ties with Iran.