The recent Saudi-brokered Yemen power-sharing agreement was an essential building block toward bringing stability to the war-torn country, a top UAE minister told Middle East security chiefs.

Addressing a plenary session at the 15th International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Manama Dialogue, in Bahrain, Emirati Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr. Anwar Gargash called the historic deal, signed in Riyadh, a clear example of the strength and power of diplomacy in helping to achieve regional security.

“We are hoping that this will also be a major building block in our common work together to try and get a political solution in Yemen.”

If diplomacy was to be successful as an instrument of statecraft in the region, it should always seek to minimize hostilities, and assist in the development of effective conflict prevention and resolution, the minister told delegates.

“In this context, I must also emphasize the importance of creating a shared economic zone. If you look at many of the examples of the GCC, for example, this is a shared economic zone. The intra-GCC trade in 2003 was $6 billion (SR22.5 billion). Today, that intra-GCC trade is $130 billion,” he said.

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Gargash noted that along with diplomacy, the region needed a positive vision of stability, and he pointed to the many young people that had recently taken to the streets in Iran, Iraq and Lebanon. “I think it should be about working the diplomacy, putting the pressure on, but also putting together a view, with regards to future stability.”

The minister added that the policy of confronting Iranian expansionism was important but said: “I do not think any one of us is actually calling for an open confrontation in a neighborhood that cannot afford more open confrontations.

“I think there is still a lot of space between a return to the JCPOA (the Iran nuclear deal), which is something that you cannot do anymore, or war. I think there is a lot of diplomatic space between the two.”