Report: Ras Al Khaimah:A Rogue State Within The UAE?
These two reports were produced by an award winning U.S. Journalist. Click below to see how RAK has devolved into a Rogue State and has operated as gateway for illicit trade with Iran.
Closest to Iran and furthest from UAE central authority is the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, which lies some 60 miles from the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas and enjoys excellent deep water ports. RAK is literally “the top of the tent”—the peninsula that juts northward toward
Iran and forms the southern shore of the narrow Strait of Hormuz. Ties to Iran and the Bout network are extensive in Ras Al Khaimah, and the international media has recently reported that this territory was also used by Al Qaeda in early 2009 to orchestrate what it hoped would be a major terrorist attack in Dubai.
Ras Al Khaimah is a semi-autonomous region ruled by Arab clans and is notably lacking in significant oil resources. Since 2003 the regime in RAK has cultivated ties to Iran and illicit transnational commerce networks on the model of Dubai— which pioneered this economic development strategy but has recently sought to reduce its own role in sanctions-busting and illicit finance amid international scrutiny and pressure.
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Report: Ras Al Khaimah: A Gateway to Trade with Iran
The strategically located emirate of Ras Al Khaimah (“RAK”) in the north of the United Arab Emirates (“UAE”) is host to more than 600 companies with strong connections to nearby Iran. It has long been suspected that many of these Iran-connected companies doing
business in RAK are using RAK’s loosely-regulated Free Trade Zone to evade US economic sanctions against Iran and, thereby, help prop up the governing regime in Iran.
To date, efforts to tighten sanctions on Iran for its support of terrorism and pursuit of nuclear and missile technologies have largely overlooked the pivotal role of petrochemical exports in propping up the regime in Tehran -- and the use of conduits such as RAK – an emirate the size of Pittsburgh, PA -- for the transshipment of such products.