Observers were surprised in the American capital after receiving press leaks related to the administration of President Donald Trump from the "Fox" news network, as it is known about the closeness of the president and his administration to the Republican Party.
Circles in Washington used to receive leaks of Trump administration attitudes and policies from the three major newspapers, "The Washington Post", "The Wall Street Journal" and "The New York Times", which are the newspapers that Trump does not stop accusing of showing lies.
It was surprising that Fox broadcast a report accusing the United Arab Emirates of blocking an agreement reached last week with US mediation to solve the Gulf crisis.
The Fox report stated that the agreement to end the siege of Qatar came as a result of extensive negotiations and meetings in which senior officials from the parties to the crisis, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, in addition to the United States participated.
The report pointed out that the UAE was blocking the agreement in the last moments, when it asked Saudi Arabia to stop the US-backed proposal to solve the crisis.
A setback for the image of the Emirates
Professor Grid Nuneman of Georgetown University believes that the Fox report is "a major setback for public relations for the United Arab Emirates," as he commented on his Twitter comment on the broadcast of the "Fox" report.
"The fact that this report appeared is a sign that sources within the Trump administration are expressing frustration at what caused the UAE to waste its attempt to end the crisis," said Christine Olrichsen, a researcher at Rice University in Texas.
Commenting on this development, David Mack, the former US ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, stressed that "enmity between the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council has no logic in terms of the strategic interests of these countries."
Leveling obstacle
On the other hand, a former US official confirmed to Al Jazeera Net that the Fox report clearly indicates that the UAE is the obstacle to achieving a settlement in an issue that serves the strategic interests of the United States.
The former official, who preferred not to be named, pointed out that "a loss of the effort of millions of dollars in Emirati investments has been spent during the past three years through contracts with major world relations companies and lobbies deployed in Washington to support its position on the crisis between the influential American circles with its emergence as a hindrance to reaching a solution to the crisis."
"Iran is the only country that benefits from the continued hostility between the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, and the strategic and economic interests of the United States suffer alongside the interests of its partners in the Gulf Cooperation Council," Ambassador Mac said to Al Jazeera Net.
Missed opportunity
The "Fox News" report considered that the UAE's position prevented the Trump administration from achieving an important foreign policy achievement and strengthening its position against Iran, which is an important step less than four months before the US presidential elections.
Since the Gulf crisis began more than three years ago, the Trump administration has been trying to push the parties to find a solution satisfactory to all, but its efforts have not yet known the path to success.
After confusion in the early days of the crisis, the Trump administration adopted a neutral stance on the part of the parties to the crisis, and senior American officials met their counterparts from the crisis countries, whether in Washington, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, or Doha.
It is noteworthy that Washington does not hesitate, according to observers, to claim the necessity of ending the siege and for the parties to the conflict to resort to the negotiating table.
Retired general Anthony Zinni was appointed in mid-2018 as an envoy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to resolve the crisis, given his extensive relations in the three capitals, but he despaired of finding a solution, and was forced to resign in early 2019.
Ambassador Mac believes that "personal enmity between the leaders of the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on the one hand, and the leaders of Qatar on the other hand, overcomes the logical arguments to end the siege imposed on Qatar and return to the attempt to build a solid Gulf front against extremist terrorists and against Iranian efforts to impose hegemony On the Gulf. "