Friday, 19 February 2021_Long before the new chapter of relations between Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv, the Emiratis had worked with Israeli surveillance experts and firms.
In fact, the first visit to the UAE by an Israeli official was made by the head of Mossad to discuss “cooperation in the field of security and issues of common interest”.
Now with normalized ties, and given a history of cooperation between the two sides, there are fears that the agreement might pave the way for more repression of Emirati journalists and rights activists at home, and of course, an uptick in cyber-attacks and surveillance operations in the region and beyond.
Shortly after the trip, it was revealed that Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv are involved in a joint surveillance project in Yemen.
The two sides were reportedly working silently on a plan to establish spy bases on the strategic Yemeni island of Socotra.
According to JForumm, the official site of the Jewish and French-speaking community, “The purpose of such a spy station would be to collect intelligence across the region, particularly from the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a sea route chokepoint between the Horn of Africa and the south of Yemen, along with the Gulf of Aden and the Middle East.”
We have different aspects of Cyber Intelligence; Cyber Intelligence covers the domestic threat and the external threat. And in this case we have the Emiratis who like to control the opposition groups and like to make sure that they monitor their own officials and other citizens or political parties, including many foreign companies on their soil. But above all, the collaboration between Israel and the Emirates is mainly directed toward Iran to make sure that they can also control the nearby country and also the Iranian company that are acting on the, they are working (in the UAE).
Elijah Magnier, Journalist and Political Analyst
While the Emirati authorities are engaged in regional surveillance for their regional ambitions, which is to become the leading power of the Middle East, they need Israel’s spying hardware and software to maintain the status quo within the borders.
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