U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Wednesday with the leader of the United Arab Emirates, wrapping up an overseas trip that saw the highest-level outreach between the United States and Russia since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Rubio's talk with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, also the ruler of Abu Dhabi, comes as the U.S. also tries to continue a shaky ceasefire in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the militant Hamas group.
The UAE, which diplomatically recognized Israel in 2020 during President Donald Trump's first term, also has been key in mediating prisoner swaps between Russia and Ukraine. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Sheikh Mohammed on Monday.
Rubio offered his thanks in the meeting to the UAE “for the strength and enduring nature of the relationship, one marked by strong economic ties, defense cooperation and mutual interests in regional stability,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement.
The meeting included discussions on artificial intelligence, the Gaza Strip, Syria, Lebanon and the Red Sea, which had been the site of attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels until the Gaza ceasefire, Bruce added.
The UAE's readout focused on comments over the Gaza Strip and the Palestinians during the meeting between Rubio, Sheikh Mohammed and Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE's foreign minister, that lasted roughly 30 minutes.
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The state-run WAM news agency reported Sheikh Mohammed had told Rubio “that the UAE strongly opposes any attempt to displace the Palestinian people from Gaza.”
Trump has said he wants to empty Gaza permanently of its more than 2 million Palestinians, saying they would not be allowed to return and suggesting at one point he might force Egypt and Jordan to take them in by threatening to cut off U.S. aid.
Sheikh Mohammed also reportedly stressed that reconstruction in Gaza be backed by a “comprehensive and lasting peace” based on a two-state solution, which would see the Palestinians have their own future state out of Gaza and the West Bank.
Both the UAE and Saudi Arabia have been discussed as possible sites for peace talks to end the war in Ukraine, which marks its third anniversary on Monday. Saudi Arabia also has been mentioned as the possible venue for a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, providing a potential diplomatic boon to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's de facto ruler.
The leaders met Rubio at an Abu Dhabi convention center that's hosting the biennial International Defense Exhibition and Conference this week, where both Ukraine and Russia have displayed weapons — even as Moscow faces Western sanctions over the war.
Russian money continues to flood into Dubai’s booming real estate market. Daily flights between the Emirates and Moscow provide a lifeline for both those fleeing conscription and the Russian elite. Ukrainians as well have fled to the Emirates, an autocratically ruled federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula.
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Rubio also visited Abu Dhabi's Abrahamic Family House, which houses a Catholic church, a Jewish synagogue and an Islamic mosque.