DUBAI — The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is better known for its skyscrapers and pampered luxuries, but it boasts of a military which is willing to take up calls to maintain peace.
The seven-state federation ranks as one of Washington’s most prominent Arab allies in the fight against the Daesh (the so-called IS) group.
But the practice gunfire echoing through the deserts near bases outside of Dubai and recent military demonstrations in the capital of Abu Dhabi show a country increasingly willing to flex its own muscle.
Already, the UAE has landed expeditionary forces in Afghanistan and Yemen. Its new overseas bases on the African continent show this country, which US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis calls “Little Sparta,” has even larger ambitions.
The UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms, only became a country in 1971. It had been a British protectorate for decades and several of the emirates had their own security forces. The forces merged together into a national military force that took part in the 1991 US-led Gulf War that expelled Iraqi forces occupying Kuwait.
The UAE sent troops to Kosovo as part of the NATO-led peacekeeping mission there starting in 1999, giving its forces valuable experience working alongside Western allies in the field.
Following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, it deployed special forces troops in Afghanistan to support the US-led war against the Taliban.
Emirati personnel there combined aid with Arab hospitality, working on infrastructure projects in villages and meeting with local elders.
The UAE decided in recent years to grow its military, in part over concerns about Iran’s resurgence in the region following the nuclear deal with world powers and Tehran’s involvement in the wars in Syria and Yemen.
“As you would expect of a proactive member of the international community, all engagements of commercial entities by the UAE Armed Forces are compliant with international law and relevant conventions,” Gen. Juma Ali Khalaf Al-Hamiri, a senior Emirati military official, said in a statement on the state-run WAM news agency.
In 2014, the UAE introduced mandatory military service for all Emirati males between the ages of 18 to 30. The training is optional for Emirati women.
“Our message to the world is a message of peace; the stronger we are, the stronger our message,” Dubai ruler and UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum wrote at the time on Twitter.
In Yemen, UAE troops are fighting alongside Saudi-led forces against Shiite rebels.
Areas where the UAE forces are deployed include Mukalla, the provincial capital of Hadramawt, and the port city of Aden.
The UAE has suffered the most wartime casualties in its history in Yemen. The deadliest day came in a September 2015 missile strike on a base that killed over 50 Emirati troops, as well as at least 10 soldiers from Saudi Arabia and five from Bahrain. — AP
