The Wall Street Journal - 16.08.2019

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Friday, August 16, 2019 |A

WORLD NEWS

was also the latest volley in Mr.

Trump’s feud with Ms. Tlaib

and Ms. Omar, and New York

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

and Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna

Pressley—a group of freshmen

Democrats who call themselves

the squad.

Mr. Trump has often criti-

cized the four women as being

anti-Israel, which they deny. He

drew accusations of racism

when he urged the four of them

to “go back” where they came

from. They were all born in the

U.S., except Ms. Omar, who is a

naturalized citizen from Soma-

lia.

Mr. Trump’s tweet came in

the midst of an unusual series

of events Thursday, when Israel

abruptly announced in the

morning that it was consider-

ing reversing its decision last

month to allow the congress-

women’s visit.

Israel’s Embassy in Washing-

ton had said it would let the

lawmakers in out of respect for

Congress and the American al-

liance.

A long silence then ensued

for much of Thursday until Mr.

Trump’s tweet, after which Is-

raeli officials began releasing

statements announcing the

ban.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel

David Friedman said the ad-

ministration supported Israel’s

decision, which it views as an

appropriate application of Is-

rael’s anti-boycott law. Asked if

Israel acted on Mr. Trump’s de-

mand, a spokesman for Mr. Ne-

tanyahu said the ban was based

mainly on the representatives’

itinerary.

A copy of their schedule

wasn’t immediately available,

but Israeli officials said they

were concerned about a possi-

ble visit by the lawmakers to

the Al Aqsa mosque, located in

the contested compound known

to Muslims as the Noble Sanc-

tuary and to Jews as the Tem-

ple Mount. The site was the

scene of clashes last weekend.

The lawmakers have said

Reps. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), left, and Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.)

J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/ASSOCIATED PRESS

the region.

President Hassan Rouhani

this week called the leaders of

Qatar, Turkey and Pakistan to

assure them that security in

the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of

Oman was a priority for Iran.

The U.K. and Iran didn’t say

if the release of the Iranian

tanker was linked to the Brit-

ish-flagged vessel’s freedom.

But Iranian officials have pre-

viously indicated such a move

would help end the detention

of the Stena Impero.

cer patients of medicine—the

U.S. attempted to abuse the le-

gal system to steal our prop-

erty on the high seas.”

The U.K., meanwhile, sent a

second warship to protect

British vessels in the Persian

Gulf area and said it would

join a U.S.-led coalition to pro-

tect maritime traffic there.

Iran says it is trying to

maintain maritime security in

the region, and that U.S. plans

to build an international mari-

time coalition will destabilize

and is trying to balance its re-

lationship with both the Trump

administration and the EU as it

prepares to leave the bloc.

Gibraltar’s seizure of the

Iranian tanker has weighed on

European attempts to salvage

the nuclear deal.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ja-

vad Zarif, who recently was

targeted by U.S. sanctions, said

in a tweet that “having failed

to accomplish its objectives

through its Economic Terror-

ism—including depriving can-

shipping in the Strait of Hor-

muz—through which a third of

the world’s seaborne oil is

transported—added to already

high tensions between the

West and Iran after the Trump

administration withdrew the

U.S. from the 2015 interna-

tional nuclear deal and then

imposed strict economic sanc-

tions on Tehran.

The developments came at a

difficult time for the British

government, which recently

underwent a leadership change

Tehran could guarantee the

cargo wouldn’t be sent there.

Iran has now given that as-

surance, the U.K. Foreign Of-

fice said. “Iran must abide by

the assurances they have pro-

vided,” it said.

Hamid Baeidinejad, Iran’s

ambassador to the U.K., said in

a tweet the ship was being

prepared for departure. The

ship’s crew are free to leave

the British territory after their

bail was lifted earlier Thurs-

day, said their lawyer, Richard

Wilkinson.

The Iranian tanker’s release

is expected to pave the way

for Iran to free the British-

flagged tanker, Stena Impero,

which it captured in the Per-

sian Gulf last month on accu-

sations that it broke interna-

tional maritime rules.

In an apparent reference to

the Stena Impero, the British

Foreign Office said there was

no comparison or linkage be-

tween Iran’s unacceptable and

illegal seizure of, and attacks

on, commercial shipping ves-

sels in the Strait of Hormuz

and Gibraltar’s enforcement of

EU sanctions on Syria.

“Freedom of navigation for

commercial shipping must be

respected and international

law upheld,” the Foreign Office

said.

Iran’s threat to commercial

Gibraltar released an Ira-
nian tanker that the British
overseas territory impounded
in July, opening the way for
Tehran to free a British-
flagged vessel it subsequently
seized and help ease tensions
in the Persian Gulf.

The decision came after a
last-minute U.S. request to
seize the tanker itself, a Gibral-
tar government spokesman
said, prompting the court to
delay its ruling on the vessel’s
detention by several hours. Gi-
braltar’s government said au-
thorities would separately con-
sider the U.S. request.
The U.S. Department of Jus-
tice, which made the request to
Gibraltar’s government, didn’t
return a request to comment.
Gibraltar didn’t say on what
grounds the U.S. made the re-
quest. Iran called the U.S. re-
quest “economic terrorism.”
Gibraltar seized the Iranian
tanker in early July with the
assistance of Britain, which
said it was carrying two mil-
lion barrels of oil to Syria in
violation of European Union
sanctions. Iran denied that.
British authorities said they
would release the tanker if

ment to deny entry to Ms. Tlaib
and Ms. Omar in a tweet.
“It would show great weak-
ness if Israel allowed Rep.
Omar and Rep. Tlaib to visit,”
Mr. Trump wrote. “They hate
Israel & all Jewish people, &
there is nothing that can be
said or done to change their
minds.”
Ms. Omar, a Somali-Ameri-
can representing Minneapolis,
called the ban an affront that
impedes her efforts as a mem-
ber of the House Committee on
Foreign Affairs from conduct-
ing oversight of U.S. foreign
aid. “Trump’s Muslim ban is
what Israel is implementing,
this time against two duly
elected Members of Congress,”
she said in a statement.
Ms. Tlaib, who represents
Detroit, posted a photo of her
grandmother in the West Bank
on Twitter, writing “The deci-
sion by Israel to bar her grand-
daughter, a U.S. Congress-
woman, is a sign of weakness
b/c the truth of what is hap-
pening to Palestinians is fright-
ening.”
Both lawmakers have denied
allegations of anti-Semitism.
Mr. Trump’s tweet marked
an unusual request by a presi-
dent to an American ally to
snub his political opponents. It

Continued from Page One

senior Trump administration

official said. “These efforts

have helped to pre-empt and

neutralize multiple Iranian

threats including terrorist and

cyber operations in third

countries, planned attacks

against international shipping,

and illegal trafficking in

arms.” The official didn’t iden-

tify any specific threats that

were thwarted.

A former U.S. official said

Mr. Hook wants help from Is-

rael and the Emirates in get-

Israel has diplomatic ties

among Arab states only with

Egypt and Jordan. Historic

disagreements remain with

those two as well as other

Arab nations, particularly

over the Israeli-Palestinian

dispute.

But covert, and occasionally

overt, contacts between Israel

and Gulf Arab nations have in-

creased rapidly in recent years

as concerns grew about Iran’s

nuclear program and its role

in conflicts in Iraq, Syria and

Yemen.

The discussions among U.S.,

Israeli and Emirati officials, al-

though still in the preliminary

stages, appear to indicate

those contacts have gone be-

yond being symbolic and ex-

ploratory to mapping coordi-

nation on specific issues. They

were intended to increase dip-

lomatic, military and intelli-

gence cooperation in dealing

with Iran, the U.S. officials

said.

The deepening cooperation

between Israel and the U.A.E.

is an outgrowth of a U.S.-bro-

kered conference on Middle

East security held in Warsaw

in February. The two-day

meeting brought together

leaders from Israel, the U.A.E.,

Saudi Arabia and dozens of

other countries in an effort to

build a global campaign

against Iran.

The Warsaw meeting

brought Israeli Prime Minister

Benjamin Netanyahu together

with Arab leaders for wide-

ranging discussions on how to

challenge Iran. Those talks led

to the creation of coordinated

discussions between Israel and

the U.A.E.—both close U.S. al-

lies—that are coordinated by

Mr. Hook. U.A.E. officials de-

clined to comment; Israeli offi-

cials didn’t respond to a re-

quest to comment.

As head of the State De-

partment’s Iran Action Group,

Mr. Hook has worked to bring

the adversaries together for

secret meetings, according to

people familiar with the dis-

cussions.

“The Iran Action Group has

been working with several

countries to coordinate diplo-

matic, security and intelli-

gence activities in response to

Iran’s escalating aggression,“ a

ting other countries in Europe

and the Middle East to take a

tough stance regarding Teh-

ran.

But complicating matters,

the former official said, is that

the Emirates has its own dip-

lomatic back channels to Iran.

The U.A.E. took a more cau-

tious approach than the U.S.

as tensions with Iran rose this

summer. It declined to join

Washington in blaming Iran

for attacks on commercial

ships in May, and last month

sent officials to Tehran to dis-

cuss maritime security. Ten-

sions have risen since Presi-

dent Trump last year

withdrew from a six-nation

nuclear deal with Iran and in-

creased economic sanctions on

the country.

Israel has made building

ties to the Gulf states a major

diplomatic priority. For most

of its history since being

founded in 1948, Israel has

been shunned by the Arab

world—although relations

with Sunni-led Gulf powers

were never as tense as they

often were with immediate

neighbors, such as Egypt and

Syria.

Israel’s foreign minister vis-

ited the U.A.E. this year for a

U.N. conference. The minister,

Israel Katz, was quoted last

week as saying he had met

with a “high-ranking persona”

in the Emirati government. Mr.

Katz also met last month in

Washington with Bahrain’s

foreign minister, Khalid bin

Ahmed Al Khalifa. There was

nothing covert about that

meeting—both sides agreed to

release a photo of the two

men with a smiling Mr. Hook

between them.

Aaron David Miller, a vet-

eran Middle East negotiator

who worked for both Demo-

cratic and Republican presi-

dents, said that a shift in re-

gional dynamics that has

elevated common concerns

about Iran has been a catalyst

for deeper cooperation be-

tween Israel and Arab coun-

tries that don’t officially rec-

ognize Israel as a nation.

While the deepening coop-

eration could lay the ground-

work for more expansive rela-

tions, Mr. Miller said it would

take more time to develop.

WASHINGTON—Israel and
the United Arab Emirates held
secret meetings arranged by
the U.S. in recent months to
share information and coordi-
nate efforts to counter what
they see as the increasing
threat posed by Iran, accord-
ing to U.S. officials familiar
with the clandestine diplo-
macy.
The meetings were con-
vened by Brian Hook, the State
Department’s top official for
Iran, and are the latest sign of
a steady thaw between Israel
and Gulf Arab nations, largely
brought about by their shared
antipathy toward Tehran and
its attempts to spread its re-
gional influence.
A first meeting took place
this spring and a second was
held more recently, a U.S. offi-
cial said. The exact dates and
locations of the unpublicized
meetings couldn’t be learned.
Their existence was known to
only a handful of people
within the U.S. government,
officials said.

BYWARRENP.STROBEL
ANDDIONNISSENBAUM

U.S. Set Up Secret Talks Between Israel, U.A.E. on Iran

Brian Hook, head of the State

Department’s Iran Action Group

PHILIPPE WOJAZER/REUTERS

they planned to visit to better

understand conditions on the

ground to inform their legisla-

tive decisions.

Blocking the congresswomen

prompted a backlash from

Democrats and Jewish groups.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D.,

Mass.), a Democratic candidate

for president, said Israel’s deci-

sion is “a shameful, unprece-

dented move” that doesn’t ad-

vance Israel’s case that it is a

“tolerant democracy or unwav-

ering U.S. ally.” House Speaker

Nancy Pelosi and Senate Mi-

nority Leader Chuck Schumer

both issued statements calling

Israel’s decision a “sign of

weakness.”

Ms. Omar has said lawmak-

ers’ support for Israel is moti-

vated by money, which critics

slammed as anti-Semitic. She

later apologized for the com-

ments. Ms. Tlaib has said Is-

rael’s policies are racist and de-

humanizing.

Last week during a visit to

Israel, along with about 70

other mostly freshmen Demo-

cratic and Republican lawmak-

ers, House Minority Leader

Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif). said

Ms. Tlaib and Ms. Omar should

be allowed to visit.

The American Israel Public

Affairs Committee, which advo-

cates for strengthening the two

countries’ ties, issued rare crit-

icism of Israel’s government,

saying on Twitter that though

they disagree with Ms. Omar

and Ms. Tlaib’s support for the

BDS movement, “we also be-

lieve every member of Con-

gress should be able to visit

and experience our democratic

ally Israel firsthand.”

Israel Bars

Visit by

Omar, Tlaib

ByBenoit Fauconin

London andSune Engel

Rasmussenin Beirut

Iran Tanker Is

Freed, Easing

Strain in Gulf

Gibraltar released an Iranian tanker, seen off the U.K. territory’s coast Thursday, after a last-minute U.S. request to seize the tanker itself.

MARCOS MORENO/ASSOCIATED PRESS

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