Mohamed Minshawi-Washington

Documents seen by Al Jazeera Net, related to investigations with businessman Elliot Prodi against the backdrop of federal accusations of violating laws governing the work of lobby institutions for foreign countries, details of the UAE's planning for an organized campaign inside Washington to harm Qatar.

The documents show that Prodi, in conjunction with George Nader, an adviser to UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, planned to influence the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump immediately after she came to power by using Prodi's strong ties within the Republican institutions, which allowed him to play a role in the campaign team of Trump.

A New York state federal court is considering whether Prodi used his position on the Trump administration team to organize deals and contracts for him and his company with foreigners.

US laws prohibit US citizens and institutions from performing lobby services and functions for foreign countries unless several conditions are met, the most important of which is the publication of contractual provisions in both technical and financial forms, recording all activities of the company or person related to services and periodically submitting them to the Ministry of Justice to ensure transparency. And make them available to the public.

Prodi and his company, Sercinius, do not appear to have abided by these rules.

The UAE wants a role
The UAE has taken advantage of Trump's desire to pursue a different policy in dealing with the Middle East to promote itself as a reliable ally.

For his part, Prodi offered the services of his company "Cercinus" to the rulers of the UAE and Saudi Arabia, which led to the acquisition of security and intelligence contracts worth more than hundreds of millions of dollars.

Prodi, on the other hand, embraced the view of Emiratis within Washington's various circles, and promoted it to President Trump personally.

The UAE has sought to adopt a dual policy to influence the Trump administration through the Elliott Brody channel, which seeks to achieve two goals:

First, President Trump was tempted to establish Abu Dhabi and Riyadh as an armed force of two divisions (more than 5,000 fighters) from Arab and Muslim countries to fight terrorism by al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and the Taliban.

During his campaign and during the Riyadh summit in May 2017, Trump called on Arab and Muslim countries to shoulder their responsibilities and not leave the task of military confrontation a burden on the United States alone.

Prodi's email to George Nader indicates that he spent two and a half hours at the White House on October 6, 2017, including a meeting with Trump's adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, followed by a meeting with President Trump in person and his national security adviser, General HR McMaster.

Prodi presented the UAE's vision of a joint Islamic force to fight terrorism, an idea that appealed to President Trump and was not welcomed by his military advisers.

Second, launch a massive campaign against Qatar in Washington.

Prodi received $ 2.4 million in three installments to fund an anti-Qatar public relations campaign in Washington.

Prodi explained to Nader that the campaign will include conferences, the production of documentaries, the publication of opinion pieces and the writing of news stories, as well as a parallel hostile campaign through social media.

The campaign, as Prodi's correspondence showed, was linked to linking Qatar to terrorist financing, spreading radical ideology, and its alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood and its closeness to the Iranian regime.

In this context, three important steps were taken:

1 - Former head of the Foreign Relations Committee, MP Ed Royce, pushed a draft resolution imposing sanctions on the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and its financial supporters, referring to the allegations against Qatar and Iran.

2. Pressuring President Trump to support the Hamas resolution targeting Qatar.

3- The draft budget of the Ministry of Defense should include an item stipulating that the American base in many countries in Qatar should be transferred to other allied countries such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Thus, opinion articles targeting Qatari policies written by friends or affiliates of Elliot Prodi began to emerge, including former official Dennis Ross and head of the Jewish Institute for National Security Michael Makovsks, who in his article called for the need to move the base of many outside Qatar. Other articles have indirectly linked terrorism financing to Qatar.

In broad planning with UAE Ambassador to Washington Yusuf Al Otaiba, Prodi donated to two research centers to organize anti-Qatar conferences and tarnish their reputation.

The Hudson Institute in collaboration with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies organized a conference in May 2017, days before the blockade began, followed by a second major conference in November 2017.