Egypt, Israel, UAE Summit Focuses On Economic Challenges As Iran Looms

Without naming the United States, Mokhber said, “Some think [the problem with the enemy] will be resolved through talks, but it is not so, although we should negotiate to lift the sanctions.”

Praising what he called the people’s readiness to sacrifice, the vice president added, “In negotiating with the West we need to be in a position of power and the enemy should accept that it cannot eradicate us. This crucial need cannot be addressed with ballistic missiles, but with people’s support and their high spirits.”

He compared the current situation with the 8-year war between Iran and Iraq in the 1980s, to highlight the importance of sacrifices by the people.

Mokhber’s comments come as Iran’s decade-old economic crisis has led to repeated protests and labor strikes since 2017 and the weakening of regime’s legitimacy. The June 2021 presidential elections also saw the lowest turnout in the 43-year history of the Islamic Republic.

Mokhber was a top business manager in the office of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei before becoming President Ebrahim Raisi’s first vice president. He was the director of the Execution of Imam Khomein’s Order, an entity meant to be a charitable organization, which has become a business conglomerate by controlling companies, banks and businesses.

The Embassy of the Islamic Republic in Kyiv issued a statement on Tuesday, announcing the temporary transfer of the embassy to the Moldovan capital.

The statement said that “due to the ongoing war in Ukraine and the impossibility of continuing the embassy’s operations” the embassy moves to Chișinău “until the situation normalizes”.

About a month into the invasion, Russia continues its bombardment of several Ukrainian cities while its troops and artillery remain on the outskirts of Kyiv.

Dozens of Iranian students stranded in the first week of invasion in Ukraine later left the country via land corridors to Romania and other Eastern European countries.

Tehran has backed Moscow in the invasion baling the United States and Nato for the crisis. However, clear media divide has emerged in Iran over the war in Ukraine, with some hardliner media repeating Moscow’s propaganda and others trying to reflect reality.

Russia's ambassador in Iran has said that Moscow will continue its "special military operation" in Ukraine until its objectives are attained.

However, former senior Iranian lawmaker Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh has said that the crisis in Ukraine provides a golden opportunity for Iran to get a foothold in international energy markets.

Representative Claudia Tenney said in a tweet on Monday that “the IRGC is actively plotting to kill Americans in the United States and has already killed Americans abroad”.

“Why is the Biden Administration even considering removing the group’s terrorist designation?” she asked.

The talk of removing the IRGC from the list has drawn sharp criticism from Republicans as well as Democrats since sources told Axios and Reuters last week that Washington is weighing the option in return for unspecified Iranian assurances.

Democratic congresswoman Elaine Luria, a naval veteran, said last week that reviving the JCPOA would “put Iran and Israel on a collision course,” echoing remarks by Israel’s ambassador to the United States Michael Herzog.

In addition to American officials, Israel’s prime minister and foreign minister have called on Washington to keep IRGC on the list, saying “The Revolutionary Guards are a terrorist organization that has murdered thousands of people, including Americans”.

Iranian officials have been publicly raising the issue since at least November, saying a ‘good deal’ would mean lifting sanctions on the Revolutionary Guard.

Such a step would reverse former President Donald Trump's 2019 blacklisting of the group, the first time the US had formally labeled part of another sovereign government as a terrorist group.

Although there was no official announcement about the presence of Israel’s Naftali Bennett, two Egyptian security sources told Reuters that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi his guests held discussions that covered the consequences of the war in Ukraine.

Persian Gulf states were excluded from talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran that they have criticized for not addressing Iran's missiles program and regional proxies, including in Yemen.

Egypt's presidency said Sisi and the UAE's Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan held expanded bilateral talks on issues including economic investment, in the Red Sea Resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Sisi stressed Egypt's commitment to security in the Persian Gulf and "rejection of any practices that seek to destabilize it," the presidency said in a statement.

The UAE along with Saudi Arabia has resisted Western calls to hike oil output and contain a jump in crude prices caused by the conflict in Ukraine.

Egypt faces new economic pressures due to the war that saw it devalue its currency by 14% on Monday. It has called on financial support from wealthy Gulf states in the past.

Bennett visited Egypt last September, the first official trip by an Israeli head of government to the country in a decade.

The department’s spokesman Ned Price in his daily briefing said, “there has been significant progress in recent weeks, but I want to be clear that an agreement is neither imminent nor is it certain.”

The statement came as National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan slammed Iran’s support for Yemen’s Houthis as the rebel force launched multiple attacks against Saudi Arabia over the weekend. Sullivan repeated US accusations that Tehran is supplying missiles and drones to the Houthis, violating a United Nations arms embargo.

It is clear that one major remaining issue in the Vienna talks is Iran’s demand to remove sanctions imposed by the Trump administration on the Revolutionary Guard, IRGC. Multiple reports have indicated the Biden Administration is weighing its options regarding the Iranian demand.

Opposition both in the United States and abroad has been strong against taking such a step. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have expressed concern over the possibility of removing the IRGC from the US Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list.

Israel’s prime minister and foreign minister forcefully and publicly opposed the notion in a statement on March 18, while the United Arab Emirates is reportedly “shocked” at the notion.

The Jerusalem Post reported that some in Abu Dhabi “are in great shock,” and their views on the issue are similar to Israel’s.

Media reports have said that the Biden administration has an option to remove the FTO designation in exchange for a promise by Tehran not to use the IRGC and its proxy forces in the region to harm US interests. Both Israel and its Arab friends in the region view a possible reliance on Tehran’s promises as a naïve and dangerous notion.

It is not clear when and if the Vienna talks will resume. Price on Monday said he can offer no information and urged Tehran to free “innocent Americans and others” held in Iran, which is Washington’s “top priority.”

Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE have had difficulties in their dealings with Washington, which last year took steps distancing itself from Persian Gulf allies. The Biden team removed the Houthis from its terror designation and restricted weapons sales to the Saudi coalition fighting in Yemen.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE which had close relations with the Trump administration have not responded to Biden’s calls for more oil supplies in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and have taken a neutral posture toward Moscow.

Price tired to minimize disagreements with the UAE when asked about the visit of Syrian president Bashar al Assad to the Emirates this week, which the administration has criticized.

Our Emirati partners, they are a partner of ours, and they will continue to be and are an important partner of the United States. We share a number of interests, including the security interests, our shared interest in bringing to a close this conflict in Yemen. We have a shared interest in terms of regional stability, in terms of pushing back on Iran, in terms of helping our Emirati partners defend themselves against the attacks that have emanated from Yemen, from the Houthis. And of course, we are committed to all of that,” the spokesman said.