The Impact of British National Policy Post 7/7 on Foreign Relations

This essay examines the intricate relationship between national and foreign policy, focusing on the impact of British national policy changes following the July 2005 terror attacks on the UK's relations with the Abu Dhabi Embassy. The essay highlights how the UK government's response to the attacks, including heightened security measures and increased scrutiny of the Muslim community, affected its diplomatic relations with Middle Eastern countries, particularly the UAE. It discusses instances of non-cooperation between the UAE government and the British Embassy, challenges faced by British citizens in the UAE, and the role of cultural barriers in straining bilateral relations. Ultimately, the essay argues that national policy significantly influences the success of international relations, using the case of the 2007 London bombings and the subsequent shift in UK national policy as a key example. The essay also explores the impact on British expatriates in the UAE and instances of alleged unjust treatment, further illustrating the complex interplay between national policy and international relations.

Running Head: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
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Foreign policy and national policy are considered to be highly related and inter-
connected. It can be stated that very often drastic change in the national policy leaves a great
impact on the foreign policy framework. In this context, this essay is going to reflect an impact
on the Abu Dhabi Embassy of Britain and the impact of British national policy after the terror
attack on July 2005 that developed a significant impact on the occupation of British Embassy in
Abu Dhabi.
On July, 2005 four suicide bombers attacked the heart of Britain, city of London with bag
packs full of explosives. As a result of that approximately 52 people were killed and a several
hundreds were injured. This incident was identified as one of the worst single terrorist attack in
the history of Britain. The international terrorist organisation Al-Qaeda held responsible for these
attack as a retaliation against the UK-US joint task force intervention in Afghanistan in 2000
(Rodgers, Qurashi and Connor 2015). Therefore, in 2001 the World Trade Centre was hit and
2005 the London Central Tube station was the primary target of the terrorists. However, the
aftermath of that blast was highly significant and it transformed the shape of UK foreign policy
drastically (Gov.uk 2018). The UK government circulated a red alert on the terrorist activities all
over the country and a nation-wide protest movement was set to initiate against the Muslims. As
the four perpetrators were Muslims therefore it became obvious for the government to take great
concern of its citizenship planning. Unprecedented scrutiny and suspicion made the life of the
UK British community as hell. The Muslim community also suffered a lot because of those
terrorist activities and government imposed draconian rule on the Muslim community (Hasan
2015).
These national policy of UK made it more critical to operate in Middle East. As a matter
of fact, the Middle East region lodged several complaints against the nefarious attitude of the

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British government to their Muslim brothers in UK. A number of protests were also staged in
UAE and especially in Abu Dhabi that created series of challenges for the UK Embassy in that
region to operate its tactical stances. The hostility and never ending threat from both the
government and the terrorist organisations made it very difficult for the UK Embassy to continue
work uninterruptedly. Adverse impact of the image of Britain in the Middle East countries had
affected the UK citizens working on UAE soil. For an example, a British citizen, Ahmad Zeidan
was gaoled in December, 2013 with the false charges of smuggling cocaine in UAE. In his
interview with The Guardian he claimed that neither the non-British co-defendants nor the
British Embassy in UAE came to rescue him due to the hostile understanding between the
governments (Zeidan 2015). Most of those peaceful terms were under the pipeline and the
national policy of Britain had become firm after the terrorist attack on 7/7. No matter what other
people thought about the British citizens, it was of course the Middle East countries those had no
willingness to deliver better privileges to the UK and US citizens. However, after the percentage
of British expats had increased since 2010 the UAE government tried little for the benefits of the
UK citizens. In addition to this, there were several number of non-cooperation between the UAE
government and the British Embassy in terms of Visa files or other matters (ExpatWoman.com
2013). The UAE government always rejected the claims of the British Embassy since the
national policy of Britain inclined towards hostility. Moreover, the cultural barrier was also took
a major role in posing a barrier in the course of maintaining a healthy bilateral relationship
between UAE and Britain. Unsupportiveness and treating the UK citizens the same way Muslims
were treated in UK was the primary objective of UAE.
From the above point of view it can be stated that the national policy and the foreign
policy have an intricate relationship or juxtaposing one another in order to understand the

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scenario more in-depth manner. As a matter of fact, the national policy partially influence the
success of the international relationship. In course of the discussion, the essay tried to point out
the terrorist attack in London in 2007 and the UK government’s change in national policy
affected the relationship between the Middle East countries and UK. In fact, it can be argued that
providing better opportunities of British expatriates in UAE or false conviction damaged the
cooperation and relation between UAE and Britain. From that point of view, the essay is very
relevant and succeeds to identify the layers of correlation between national policy and
international relation.

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Reference
Gov.uk. 2018. UK help and services in United Arab Emirates - GOV.UK. [online] Gov.uk.
Available at: https://www.gov.uk/world/united-arab-emirates [Accessed 23 Nov. 2018].
Zeidan, A., 2015. I am unjustly imprisoned in the UAE – why won’t the UK government help
me? | Ahmad Zeidan. [online] the Guardian. Available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/26/uk-citizen-imprisoned-uae-british-
government-no-help [Accessed 23 Nov. 2018].
ExpatWoman.com, 2013. British Embassy Abu Dhabi. [online] ExpatWoman.com. Available at:
https://www.expatwoman.com/abu-dhabi/guide/faqs/british-embassy-abu-dhabi [Accessed 23
Nov. 2018].
Hasan, M., 2015. Life for British Muslims since 7/7 – abuse, suspicion and constant apologies |
Mehdi Hasan. [online] the Guardian. Available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/05/british-muslims-7-july-london-
bombings [Accessed 23 Nov. 2018].
Rodgers, L., Qurashi, S. and Connor, S., 2015. 7/7 attacks: What happened that day?. [online]
BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-33253598 [Accessed 23 Nov. 2018].