S.J. Mercury: Dubai's Western-oriented image couldn't save ports deal [View All]

Posted on Fri, Mar. 10, 2006
Dubai's Western-oriented image couldn't save ports deal
By Dion Nissenbaum
Knight Ridder Newspapers

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/14068785.htm

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Two miles off the coast of Dubai, Dutch ships work day and night sucking up sand from the bottom of the Persian Gulf to create the latest vision of the emirate's ruler: an ambitious, $3 billion, 300-island development project in the shape of a globe where, for $10 million, you can own a piece of The World.

Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum has spent years dreaming up spectacular projects in this tiny enclave on the toe of the Arabian Peninsula, in a bid to carve out a free-market refuge in the Middle East that some have dubbed Dubai Inc.

Almost overnight, the sheik's attempts to package his emirate as an enlightened pioneer in an unstable region were eclipsed by the furor in Washington over plans to turn over management of six U.S. ports to a Dubai-owned company. Critics of the deal have demonized Dubai - which features the world's most luxurious hotel, the richest horse race on the planet and the region's first indoor ski resort - as a terrorist refuge, a bank for militant Muslims and an al-Qaida transit lounge.

The Dubai-owned company at the center of the ports controversy surrendered to the intense political pressure on Thursday and announced that it intended to sell its stake in the American ports to a U.S. firm. The move might quell the firestorm, but the aborted deal could have a far-reaching effect on the Middle East and on Arab-American relations. "Dubai is a trendsetter for the Arab world," said Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a professor of political science at Emirates University. "This is where the United States should encourage trend-setting for moderates, for a free economy, for globalization. If America loses this friend, they are losing a potential future Arab tiger."



New towers being constructed along the Dubai coast under the leadership of the United Arab Emirates' Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum.