Assad received in Arab capital first time in 12 years. US said considering de-listing Rev Guards as terrorists

Syrian dictator Bashar Assad was received in the UAE on Friday, March 19 for his visit to an Arab capital in 12 years, amid uproar in Abu Dhabi and Riyadh over the reported US plan to de-list the IRGC as a terrorist organization. Assad was received in Abu Dhabi after long being blacklisted over his atrocities in subduing the civil uprising against his rule, as gesture of protest by the Arab Emirates over Washington’s possible removal of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) from its list of terrorist groups, to win Tehran’s consent to reviving the 2015 nuclear deal. Abi Dhabi and Riyadh shares Jerusalem’s dismay over this step.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid recalled in a statement that the Revolutionary Guards “has murdered thousands of people, including Americans” and called its removal from the list of terrorists “an insult to their victims.” The two ministers said: “The fight against terror is a global mission” and “We believe that the United States will not abandon its closest allies in exchange for a promise not to harm Americans.”

For the rulers of the UAE and Saudi Arabia, the Biden administration’s eagerness to pander to Iran for the sake of a nuclear deal is more dangerous than an “insult” to the Guards’ victims. US rapprochement with Tehran is seen as the repudiation of America’s mutual security understandings with the two oil-rich Gulf nations. Both made a point of ducking President Joe Biden’s attempt to bring them aboard his plan to counter the impact of US sanctions against Russia for invading Ukraine on energy prices. READ MORE