House hearing showcases UAE and Bahrain funding at the witness table

At 2pm today, the House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on “Expanding the Abraham Accords.” All of the witnesses appearing before the committee work at organizations with institutional and/or financial ties to the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

The 2020 Accords, which marked the normalization of relations between Israel and both the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, also opened the floodgates for a wave of new weapons sales in the region, particularly from Israel to UAE, Bahrain and Morocco. The hearing will also be a showpiece for how foreign funding has permeated Washington’s think tanks and how little disclosure is done of these potential conflicts of interest.

Ret. Gen. Joseph L. Votel, is a distinguished fellow at the Middle East Institute, a group that counts the UAE as its single biggest funder and Bahrain as a lower level donor. 

Votel, appearing in his capacity as a MEI fellow, chose not to reveal that information in his Truth in Testimony disclosure, a disclosure required of all nongovernmental congressional witnesses, attesting that MEI received no payments "originating with a foreign government related to the subject of the hearing.”

After I tweeted  about his failure to disclose the UAE connection last night, Votel updated his form this morning, disclosing “grants or donations that could be tangentially related” to the hearing on the Abraham Accords. He disclosed funding from the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar,, and Oman. 

Votel isn’t the only witness affiliated with groups with financial ties to Abraham Accords signatories.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel, and current Atlantic Council Distinguished Fellow Daniel B. Shapiro attested that “I am representing myself and my personal viewpoints” and indicated that he is not representing an institution that receives payments “originating with a foreign government related to the subject of the hearing.” 

The Atlantic Council, like MEI, counts the UAE as one of its top funders and Bahrain as a lower level donor. 

Shapiro, while claiming that he is only representing himself, submitted written testimony that identifies him as a “Distinguished Fellow, Atlantic Council” and spoke extensively about work he has undertaken at the Atlantic Council.

The third and final witness is Robert Greenway, president and CEO of the Abraham Accords Peace Institute. Greenway also said that his organization has received no “payment originating with a foreign government related to the subject of the hearing.”

Funding of his group is a mystery since the Institute doesn’t disclose information about its funding. But a 2021 Axios article described the Emirati and Bahraini ambassadors in Washington as cofounders of the institute. 

[Jared] Kushner is founding the institute with former White House envoy Avi Berkowitz, who helped negotiate the agreements; Israeli-American businessman and Democratic donor Haim Saban; and three heavy hitters from the region: the Emirati and Bahraini ambassadors to Washington, Yousef Al Otaiba and Abdulla R. Al-Khalifa, and Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi.

Today’s hearing offers a case study in how Emirati and Bahraini funding has become omnipresent at major foreign policy think tanks. It also reveals the low standards for disclosures of potential conflicts of interest held by House committees and their witnesses. And both of these issues come at a time when the U.S. intelligence community has reportedly become increasingly concerned about UAE meddling in U.S. politics. 

Others are even more scathing about the witness lineup and their financial ties. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace visiting scholar and former foreign policy advisor to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Matt Duss, tweeted, the hearing’s witness lineup is a good example of “the corruption that everyone in DC agrees to pretend isn’t corruption.”

Atlantic Council did not respond to a request for comment.

UPDATE: Rachel Dooley, MEI's deputy director of communications, told Responsible Statecraft:

The Middle East Institute does not adopt or advocate positions on particular policy issues. MEI's scholars retain complete intellectual independence, and their work, including testimony, represents their own views. MEI accepts funding only from donors who value its expertise and agree to this policy on independence.

UPDATE II: A representative of the Abraham Accords Peace Institute told Responsible Statecraft:

The Abraham Accords enjoy broad bi-partisan support in the U.S., and AAPI is committed to its ongoing work to support the Accords and strengthen ties among signatories.  No foreign national founded AAPI and it receives no funding from any foreign source.