Thread by @andreas_krieg

"The #UAE was the most likely foreign funder of the mercenary operation of #ErikPrince...The report points out that the mercenaries had offices, bank accounts and shell companies in the Emirates."
nytimes.com/2021/02/19/wor…

"#MBZ has longstanding ties to Prince and is probably #Haftar's most important foreign backer...Last year, the #UAE poured tons of weapons into Libya in blatant disregard for the arms embargo..." - Abu Dhabi has still not responded to the #UN Report

#MbZ once famously referred to Erik Prince as "his guy" considering how much the #UAE owed to Prince's mercenary know-how & networks
theintercept.com/2019/05/03/eri…

#ErikPrince's engagement with #MbZ in the #UAE started in late 2010 - he was contracted to build a mercenary force for local regime security use before asked to expand it for expeditionary use
nytimes.com/2011/05/15/wor…

#ErikPrince helped setting up an expeditionary anti-piracy force of South African mercenaries in #Somalia which provided the #UAE with important expeditionary capacity & strategic reach into the Horn of Africa
nytimes.com/2012/10/05/wor…

Later on #ErikPrince's mercenary force in Abu Dhabi was sent to fight for the #UAE in #Yemen with 100s of Colombians deployed on the ground to supplement Emirati capacity & capability
nytimes.com/2015/11/26/wor…

More important than that, #ErikPrince helped setting up backchannel talks between the #Trump administration, the #UAE and #Russia in the now infamous #Seychelles meeting in January 2017 - much as an interlocutor for Abu Dhabi as for the Trump campaign
vox.com/2018/3/7/17088…

This makes #ErikPrince one of a few high calibre interlocutors & fixers for the #UAE with direct ties to #MbZ - Mohammad Dahlan, George Nader & Elliot Broidy being others - helping the UAE's clandestine operations in the region