NOURNEWS - French President Emmanuel Macron met with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed Benzayed on Friday at the start of a two-day visit to the Persian Gulf states.
Following the meeting, in addition to several billion-euro trade deals, it was announced that the two countries had signed a 14-billion-euro contract to sell 80 French-made Rafale fighter jets to the UAE.
The deal has drawn criticism from Human Rights Watch, which says the UAE has played a significant role in "crimes committed during the military operation in Yemen."
As reported by the French Parliament, the UAE's defense purchases from France between 2011 and 2020 amounted to nearly 5 billion euros, making it the fifth largest buyer of French arms, in case the United States still remains the UAE's main supplier of arms.
Along with France, the United States and Britain are also the largest sellers of weapons to the UAE, which the most important place for the consumption of these weapons is in the imposed war against the Yemeni people, although it should be noted that the United States remains the main supplier of weapons to the UAE.
Macron traveled to Qatar on a regional trip after the UAE, and on Saturday met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the Royal Palace in Jeddah to become the first European leader since the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi who traveled to this country in 2018.
The visit coincides with the start of the Iran-P4+1 talks in Vienna and the political and economic tensions in Lebanon, among other issues that have given the Macron trip a different political and economic dimension.
France is a party to the JCPOA nuclear deal with Iran, and Macron has always sought to play a key role in the process of Iran-West relations.
Nonetheless, his visit to the Persian Gulf countries in the current situation, as well as the signing of the massive military contracts mentioned above, demonstrated an important and, of course, concerning sign of the West's ongoing efforts to foment Iranophobia.
The signing of a heavy arms deal with a small country like the United Arab Emirates in a situation where there is no particular threat to this Sheikdom on the southern shores of the Persian Gulf is reminiscent of the famous example of selling ice to Eskimos living in the Arctic with a fear of scorching heat.
Turning the Persian Gulf region into a weapons depot, while with the withdrawal of trans-regional forces, no military threat is possible for them, is possible only by creating fear in the countries of the region using the levers of psychological operations and introducing threats to each other.
This trend has long been followed by the West's false propaganda about the nature of peaceful nuclear activities, and in the new round of talks in Vienna, it is still on the agenda of Western countries.
To describe the point precisely, while the United States illegally withdraw from the JCPOA and reinstating sanctions, and Europe, through inaction and non-fulfillment of JCPOA commitments, have brought the JCPOA closer to the edge of the abyss of destruction, now, instead of compensating for the loss and lifting the sanctions, they are constantly focusing on nuclear issues by planning to intensify and perpetuate Iranophobia.
Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) during the implementation of the JCPOA has repeatedly reaffirmed Iran's full commitment to its commitments.
Accordingly, Macron's recent trip to the region and cashing in on billion-dollar checks on the Iranophobia case clearly show that Westerners are not genuine about "negotiations" and only seek political and propaganda exploitation of the subject of negotiations to advance other programs and incite wealthy Sheikdoms in the region.
BY: Pooya Mirzaei
NOUNEWS