Michele Flournoy: UAE-Aligned Biden’s Potential Defense Secretary
The candidate of Biden defense secretary, Michele Flournoy is being viewed as a positive sign for empowering women in US politics. However, she has been a supporter of arms sales to the UAE and Saudi for years. Flournoy has also received money from Yousef al-Otaiba to satisfy the interests of the UAE.
As Joe Biden ousted Donald Trump in the 2020 November elections, a large number of human rights organizations and progressives became hopeful of witnessing rightful decisions. Many were majorly satisfied that it would end the blind support that the United States has shown towards the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, under Trump’s administration. However, the wave of relief could be jolted, if Michele Flournoy is elected as the Biden defense secretary.
The incoming Democratic government of Biden is expected to possibly end the years-long war in Yemen and Libya by denying arms sales to the UAE and Saudi. However, in the run to become the US secretary of defense, Flournoy has a history of supporting the Arab nations, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, especially over the weapon sales. During the talks on Yemen in 2019, Michele Flournoy was in opposition of the ban on weapon sales to Saudi Arabia.
After leaving the office as the undersecretary of defense for policy in 2012, she became the face to influence the US policies according to the UAE, using her close contact with Yousef al-Otaiba, the UAE ambassador to US. Leaked emails and invoices revealed in 2017 that the potential Biden defense secretary, Flournoy played a key role in the Emirates’ attempt of pushing its agenda using the US-based think tanks.
In 2013, Michele Flournoy emailed Otaiba as a mediator between the UAE Ministry of Interior and Polaris Wireless, the software firm that was attempting to sell location-based services technology to the Emirates. She requested for a meeting between the two sides, stating that she was “most interested in seeing the UAE have this capability as a key security partner”.
While Flournoy is one of the names in the list of potential Biden defense secretary, she has been majorly on the opposite side of the Democratic agendas. Co-founder and the CEO of the US-based think tank, Center for New American Security (CNAS), Michele Flournoy was the undersigned of an invoice that billed the UAE embassy $250,000 for a study on Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), which is an agreement governing export of large military-grade weapons.
A private paper on MTCR from the CNAS was commissioned by Otaiba, who was in direct contact with Flournoy through emails. The invoice was signed in August, two months after Otaiba received an email from Flournoy on “the potential benefits and costs of the UAE joining the MTCR”.
A repressive regime, which ruthlessly clamps down on the dissidents, the UAE has been attempting to influence the US politics as per its own interests, for years. The Gulf country is known for its aggressive use of surveillance technology and spying tools to keep an eye on political dissidents. Besides, it has also been yearning for some of most sophisticated weapons like unmanned aerial vehicles from the US, which the Emirates cannot acquire under the MTCR.
The Biden defense secretary candidate, Michele Flournoy has defied such American policies for the Emirates. Her close connections with Yousef al-Otaiba and monetary benefits from the UAE could become equally damaging for the Democratic approach and US foreign policy, like they have been in the past. Besides, if she is elected as the secretary of defense, it would ease the route of arms export to both UAE and Saudi that are fuelling severe wars in Yemen and Libya.
