Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed himself has been involved in US special investigator Robert Mueller's report on Russia's intervention in the 2016 US presidential election.
According to the Associated Press, Ibn Zayed was the only foreign leader mentioned in the report, named for his mysterious role in a meeting held in the Seychelles on January 11, 2017, between the director of the Russian direct investment fund Kirill Dmitriev and founder of the company "Blackwater" military American Private Eric Prince who has relationships with the Trump Ocean.
The Abu Dhabi Crown Prince found a strong ally in the White House after President Donald Trump took power, especially under the new tough US approach to Iran, the report says.
Ryan Boehl, analyst at Stratfor Private Intelligence, based in Austin, Texas, said the UAEis had found an opportunity to establish a new relationship with the United States under President Trump's administration, but "did not take into account that other institutions such as the Army, the State Department and Congress would also have an opinion "He said.
According to the report, Sheikh Mohammed visited the Seychelles at the time with his advisor, George Nader, who attended the meeting, an American-Lebanese businessman who was convicted in the Czech Republic in 2003 on charges of sexual harassment of minors.
According to the report, Dimitriev asked Nader before the meeting to grant access to members of the Trump transition team. The Russian official thanked the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince's advisor on behalf of President Vladimir Putin for arranging the meeting and said that the meeting "makes history."
What happened at the meeting is still unclear, in part because of a series of revisions to the report, but pointed out that Prince warned the Russian government against interfering in Libya.
Prince told Congress that the meeting was a "coincidence" and did not aim to meet any Russian official, but Mueller's report refutes the allegations. Media reports say Prince helped the UAE build its own paid troops.
Mueller's report did not directly address the role of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince in arranging the meeting, but pointed out that Ibn Zayed sought to hold a meeting in the United States with transition officials in the Trump administration, before entering the White House.
According to the Associated Press, UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed is weak and says he has rarely appeared since he suffered a stroke in 2014, so his crown prince is in charge of the country, as indicated by his strong relationship with the Saudi crown prince, Ben Salman.