Dubai: The UAE was prepared to deploy 24 aircraft to help enforce a no-fly zone over Libya but decided not to participate in the coalition effort because of US and European policies towards Bahrain, the former commander-in-chief of the UAE Air Force said on Tuesday, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
"The UAE was willing, and there were preparations, to deploy a significant number of aircraft for the no-fly zone, but a reprioritisation - specifically the European and US positions on Bahrain - did not satisfy the Gulf states to this end," the US paper quoted Major General Khalid Al Buainain, who retired in 2006, as saying on the sidelines of the annual conference of the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR) in Abu Dhabi.
According to the report, Major General Al Buainain said the UAE was initially planning to deploy two squadrons of Mirage and F-16 fighter jets to Libya.
"What's going on in Bahrain is much beyond our Western allies to understand it," he told the Wall Street Journal.
"The European and US positions are unable to imagine the extent of Iranian intervention in Bahrain. It's a matter of political disagreement - not a matter of resources - between the Gulf states and the Europe and US," he said, adding that the UAE may be willing to reconsider its position if the West's stance on Bahrain changes.
He also told the newspaper that the US and European governments had misread the protests in Bahrain as a spillover of calls for democratic change sweeping through the region.
The US had recently warned against the use of violence during the crackdown on protesters in Bahrain, and urged both sides to reach a negotiated solution.
On Monday, the UAE said it was playing a purely humanitarian role in Libya by delivering aid supplies.
The UAE had taken a leading role in the calls for action in Libya, hosting a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council in Abu Dhabi on March 7 at which the six-member bloc of Gulf Arab nations urged the international community to enforce a no-fly zone.
