The Duran Podcast - US/EU pressure UAE in effort to pick apart BRICS

Episode Date: September 10, 2023

US/EU pressure UAE in effort to pick apart BRICS

All right, Alexander, let's talk about the pressure being placed on the United Arab Emirates by the United States and the European Union, the Wall Street Journal article. I talked about this the other day, how the U.S. and the European Union, they're upset with the UAE because they claim that the UAE is sending dual-use goods to Russia. and the Russians are using those dual-use goods to power up their military. They're taking microchips from washing machines and putting them into fighter jets. It's what they're accusing the UAE of doing. And so now they're in the United Arab Emirates, and they're going to talk to the UAE to try and get them to stop exporting these things to Russia. But your hunches is that this has less to do about Russia and more to do with,

BRICS and the UAE is one of the new members of BRICS. Exactly, because why else pile on the pressure on the UAE in that kind of way? I mean, all this talk about dual-use technologies. I mean, it's not just the UAE. Lots of other countries are now exporting washing machines and refrigerators and electronic goods to Russia. I was just reading just before we started this program, a report from TAS, we said that 70% of consumer electronics that are now sold in Russia come from China.

And as we know, the Chinese are now able to produce advanced microchips. So making a big issue of the UAE is ridiculous. The reason they've come after the UAE is because we've just had that big summit meeting in Germany. Hannesburg. There's been this decision to expand bricks. Amongst the countries that have decided to join BRICS is the UAE. The UAE is small. So you try to unpick the BRICs because of course bear in mind the BRICS is evolving into a trading system, a trading system. You try to unpick the BRICs by going after its smallest and in some ways its weakest member at the moment

and the one that is most arguably susceptible to US pressure. There's big American air bases apparently in the UAE. Just just saying. So you go after the UAE, you put the pressure on the UAE, you try to get the UAE to start imposing sanctions on the Russians. secondary sanctions on the Russians, threaten them with secondary sanctions, trying to interfere

with their trade with the Russians. Because of course if you can do that, then you're starting to create disruption within the trading system that the bricks are creating, which is of course designed to enable these countries to trade with each other without having their trade disrupted through Western sanctions. So I think this is what this is all about. Well, this work. I am absolutely sure not. I mean, this is, of course, precisely what, why countries like the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, all of them have joined bricks. It's in order to provide themselves with protection from this kind of thing.

And, of course, what the UAE can do, it's a very rich country, it's one of the major oil producers, one of the major oil exporters. Well, they will push back. They will say that all this talk about dual-use technology is nonsense. They'll make exactly the points that we've been making on this program. And besides, they will perhaps remind the Americans and the British that just as China can export all of these high-tech goods to electronic goods and things like that to Russia.

So, of course, China can export them to the UAE as well. I mean, you know, they don't have to have American smart. firms. They don't have to have American refrigerators. They don't even have to have American laptops and things. China is now in a position to produce all of these things. And of course

the UAE will pointedly remind the Western powers. We're an absolutely seminal oil exporter. If you start pushing us like this, well, we might start reducing our buying of US treasuries.

We could perhaps also start agree with OPEC plus production cuts at the moment it's the Saudis and the Russians who are doing most of that

but you know we might join in too so you know it's pressure of a kind the Emirates officials of very sophisticated

people they might give all kinds of assurances which nobody should take seriously say well of course we're not going to provide the Russians with the most sensitive things. But of course, the reality is trade will continue exactly as before.

And ultimately, the Emirates people probably feel that all this pressure behind it, it's bluff. And they're almost right, almost certainly right, and the bluff will be called. Well, there's going to be the diplomacy side of things. but the U.S. is going to also bring the stick. They'll dangle some carrots, but eventually, ultimately, you're going to have the threats. So I'm just trying to think, what could they threaten the UAE with in order to comply? Is there something that they can threaten the UAE with?

Well, I mean, the initial threat will be secondary sanctions. And, you know, that is a serious threat. and it attacks on the Emirates' financial system, which is, of course, very deeply interconnected with that of the West. Remember, like Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, its currencies pegged to the dollar. So, I mean, there is that sort of pressure point, which the United States has. But there, of course, that for the West itself carries risks, because one of the reasons why these currencies, the Saudi currency, the Emirates currency,

are pegged to the dollar, is that it facilitates movement of money, oil money, from these countries to the West. That's always been what's been happening ever since, well, the 1970s in a big way. It had even started before. So really starting to impose across-the-board sanctions, on Emirates banks and financial institutions carries risks for the United States

and the West as well and I suspect the Emirates leadership probably calculate correctly that the West will never do that. Okay, well, we're going to find out soon, I guess. All right. The dera.

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