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By Rami G. Khouri | http://agenceglobal.com/index.
BEIRUT — The apparent air strike against targets in Tripoli, Libya last week by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) air force must go down as one of the most intriguing developments in the modern history of the Arab Gulf states. The fact that UAE planes allegedly used Egyptian air bases and other facilities to carry out the attack makes it even more intriguing — a sign of substantive, sophisticated cooperation by two Arab states to attack targets in a third Arab state.
This is significant because of two main factors: the increasing dynamism of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states in using their military, financial and other assets in the service of political objectives around the Arab world; and, what this tells us about current GCC priorities in Arab ideological arenas. Both of these facets of the air attack in Libya clarify that a major shift is underway in the worldviews and self-perceived roles of leading Arab states, who now throw their weight around the Middle East in a direct manner they never did previously. This also partially fills the vacuum created by the slow disengagement, or repositioning, of global powers who have been reordering their priorities in the region. http://agenceglobal.com/index.php?show=article&Tid=2764
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