Rubio wraps four-day Middle East trip with brief UAE touchdown

he Trump administration’s top-ranked diplomat wrapped up a four-day Middle East trip on Wednesday with just three hours on the ground in Abu Dhabi, during which he met with Emirati leaders.

Marco Rubio, the U.S. secretary of state, discussed a variety of topics with United Arab Emirates President Mohamed Bin Zayed and Abdullah Bin Zayed, the Emirati foreign minister.

Curiously, the meeting did not take place at the presidential palace Qasr Al Watan but instead at the massive Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, which was hosting the sprawling International Defense Exhibition and Conference that drew military vendors from across the world, including Israel, Russia and China.

The meeting “affirmed the vitality of the U.S.-UAE strategic partnership,” and Rubio expressed his “appreciation for the strength and enduring nature of the relationship, one marked by strong economic ties, defense cooperation and mutual interests in regional stability,” stated Tammy Bruce, the State Department spokeswoman.

While enhanced economic and technological cooperation was encouraged, the conversation was also geared toward the evolving situation in Gaza, where a delicate U.S.-brokered Israel-Hamas ceasefire and hostage exchange deal is headed toward deeper talks about a second phase.

Other regional concerns also came up during the meeting, which ran about 30 minutes, including a lack of stability in Syria, Lebanon and in the Red Sea, where Yemen’s Houthi rebels continue to wreak havoc with attacks on ships, per the U.S. readout.

WAM, the UAE official agency, reported that Mohammed bin Zayed told Rubio “that the UAE strongly opposes any attempt to displace the Palestinian people from Gaza.”

The reported statement came in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement earlier this month that Washington intends to take over and rehabilitate the Gaza Strip, relocating its citizens to Egypt and Jordan.

The UAE is among a host of Arab states, including Egypt and Jordan, that pushed back on the plan and which will meet on Friday to begin formulating an alternative plan to Trump’s.

The Emirati president also reportedly stressed that Gaza’s reconstruction must be supported by a “comprehensive and lasting peace” based on a two-state solution, with a Palestinian state located in Gaza and Judea and Samaria.

Neither party spoke on camera during a brief media opportunity at the outset of the meeting.

Rubio also took an unannounced trip to Abu Dhabi’s Abrahamic Family House, an interfaith complex in the city’s cultural district.

Mohamed Khalifa al Mubarak, chair of the Emirati department of culture and tourism, guided Rubio through the welcome center, followed by the church, synagogue and mosque on site.

Rubio asked his guide questions throughout the tour, but reporters accompanying the secretary of state couldn’t hear the questions or answers.

The relatively-light day came after a marathon, two-day stay in Riyadh, where Rubio met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday, before the kingdom hosted U.S.-Russia talks on Tuesday in an opening bid to find a resolution to the Russia-Ukraine war.

Bin Salman, whose foreign ministry issued a direct and aggressive statement hours after Trump’s pronouncement on Gaza, was more diplomatic in front of the cameras on Monday. The crown prince told Rubio that Trump’s “administration made a decision and we can work for positive things for Saudi Arabia and America, and also for many countries around the world.”

JNS learned that the Trump administration still did not have a feel for the Saudi position on an Arab plan for Gaza following Monday’s sit-down but was willing to give space to the Saudis and other Arab states to formulate a plan without additional public pressure.

Rubio met with Israeli officials in Jerusalem on Sunday, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

©JNS