WIDE ANGLE | Fallout From Wars In Iran & Ukraine: Rich Hunting For ‘Doomsday’ Refuge | Saeed Naqvi

The rumour that Sultan bin Mohammad al Qasimi, the ruler of Sharjah, is opting out of the United Arab Emirate due to policy differences over the Iran war is based on a misunderstanding.

The Sharjah ruler is buying thousands of hectares of prime farmland in New Zealand. He is only following a trend. There was a time was Arab sheikhs eyed property in Europe, the UK or California. That is no longer in vogue. Now trends are propelled by chants of Armageddon and Doomsday.

Yesterday’s favourite destinations, in Europe or the US, are now overlooked as these are seen as flashpoints of the catastrophe ahead.

The Sheikh of Sharjah already maintains in his sheikhdom the world’s largest cow farm as he is obsessed with food security in a dangerous world.

Of course, the purchase of farms in the remote South Pacific is not for food security only. Being as far as possible from global flashpoints is a compelling incentive. The New Zealand government, with its eye on the main chance, has relaxed rules for purchasing property provided the buyers also help the host country’s economy.

In case I have created the impression that only Arab sheikhs are salivating on the New Zealand option, some legendary names from Silicon Valley, such as Sam Altman, are also investing there. Themes are developing which will surely be snapped up by futuristic cinema on an epic scale. Billionaires are planning underground palaces for extensive stay to insulate themselves from nuclear radiation, should that come to pass.

The land of pretty dales, snowlines, lakes and pastoral farms touching the horizon has retained its pristine beauty. Once the international media picks up the story, its pristineness will surely be compromised.

The buzz over Sharjah’s possible unease in the UAE is largely due to Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed’s eccentric, pro-Israel politics, out of line with most of the GCC. The GCC was formed in response to two traumatic events, both in 1979: the Islamic Revolution and the capture of the Mecca Mosque led by an extremist anti-monarchy group.

Since the Ayatollahs replaced the Shah, the West’s most reliable guardian of the Persian Gulf, the West played up the turmoil in Iran as the greater danger, although the occupation of Mecca Mosque signalled a much greater internal vulnerability of the sheikhdoms.

To add to the trouble, Iraq invaded Iran in 1980. Every step had US approval. Being plugged into Washington became a goal.

Top bracket West Asian diplomats divined that the secrets of purposeful hospitality in a capital like Washington was to fall back on the Arabian Nights mode. Lavish parties by the Shah of Iran’s ambassador, Ardeshir Zahedi, boasted of Henry Kissinger and Elizabeth Taylor, for example, as regulars.

Prince Bandar bin Sultan feted several Presidents. His intimacy with George W. Bush was such that the highest echelons of Washington often addressed him as “Bandar Bush”. No one quite as illustrious has recently represented the Saudis, possibly as hands-on Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman may be averse to ambassadors in major capitals upstaging him. But the “Alif Laila” culture of lavish hospitality in the tradition of Ardeshir Zahedi and “Bandar” Bush has been sustained and refined by Yousef al Otaiba, the UAE’s ambassador to the US.

He is extraordinarily well-plugged into all the power points in Washington, including, ironically, key figures in the Israeli lobby. The pronounced pro-Israeli slant in UAE’s foreign policy multiplies Mr Otaiba’s power in Washington, but only as long as his patrons have Washington in their grip. This fact may not be a constant with recent trends going in Iran’s favour.

Mr Otaiba is not the only one in this predicament. The other power battery in Abu Dhabi is Eric Prince, the founder of Blackwater, the world’s biggest provider of mercenary armies. Because of some legal difficulties in the US, Mr Prince shifted his base in 2010. Sheikh Zayed used his talent in setting up mercenary armies. An 800-strong special force consisting only of foreign soldiers from countries like Colombia and South Africa has been in charge of Sheikh Zayed’s security for years.

The Sheikh had specifically requested a non-Muslim force. Only a non-Muslim force, he felt, could be relied upon to quell any Muslim uprising. In Bahrain, where 80 per cent of the population is Shia and therefore treated as hostile by the Sunni rulers, recruitment to the police force is mostly from Pakistan, but with a peculiar twist: the recruits must be from those areas of Pakistan where their mettle has been tested in violence with Shias. When I was in Manama, Bahrain’s capital, the watchman guarding the Indian embassy was a tall Pakistani.

Two conflicting moves are now afoot. President Donald Trump is trying to keep the Abraham Accords alive. This would have the effect of giving Benjamin Netanyahu’s drooping morale some support and provide company in the GCC to the UAE, which is otherwise isolated in the Israeli camp.

Iran, on its part, is being straight as an arrow with the Gulf nations. It has put the UAE and Bahrain in the enemy camp, but accelerated a furtive diplomatic initiative with all the others.

In West Asia as well as Ukraine, the drift of events has recently been against the West. There is thus a ganging-up in Europe to roll back the Vladimir Putin juggernaut by arming Volodymyr Zelenskyy under expert guidance. Pushed to the wall, Mr Putin could widen the war across Europe. In West Asia, a nuclear-armed Israel as a wounded tiger remains a menacing presence. The ultra-rich have clearly taken all factors into account and, with a cunning they are reputed for, located a doomsday hideout with a sense of purpose and security in the farthest edge of the South Pacific.

The writer is a senior journalist and commentator based in New Delhi