Dubai: UK Minister for Middle East and North Africa, Alistair Burt, says he was struck by Arab students' genuine curiosity and their keen interest in political issues, during a visit to the University of Sharjah (UOS) on Tuesday.
Burt is currently in the UAE to meet with government officials as part of the UK-UAE Taskforce, which builds cooperation in the areas of culture, education, business and defence. The minister held a roundtable discussion with UOS students on recent events in the region. He answered questions and gave a UK perspective on political activities.
"There is a huge and genuine spirit of enquiry and students, like the rest of us, are surprised at what has happened after many years of apparent stability," Burt said.
UOS media student Sally Saeed said her friends were interested in Burt's feedback on Gaza, Iraq and Libya and their questions were about the UK's policies relating to those countries. "I think the minister was very surprised as there isn't a high expectation that Arab students are interested in politics. He said that we have a very good background of Middle East Affairs and said our countries would be very proud of us."
He said students were curious to know what the UK's stance is on issues such as action against Libya and how it was distinguishing between various countries.
"And, of course, Israel and Palestine is a long-running sense of concern and they wanted to know what our attitudes were towards that."
Foreign influence
The students also asked Burt if there was any foreign influence on the turn of events in the Middle East.
"We don't think there is. We think in all these cases... there have been enough domestic reasons for concern and protest...," he said.
However, the minister said that the UK has tried to ensure consistency in their stance, emphasising their belief in the freedom of expression, of assembly, and the right to demonstrate in a peaceful manner.
Burt added that behind some of the questions "there was obviously personal experience, sometimes very heartfelt but with emotions in check no matter how difficult the circumstances were.
"I think any politician finds it enormously rewarding when they're listening to people who have such personal experience to bring and where you get a challenge where a global issue becomes immediately personal. …we believe all politicians should be exposed to enquiry from people, and it's in those places where that spirit does not exist that we see the greatest risk," he said.
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