U.S. urges UAE to end its boycott of Israel

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The Bush administration said yesterday it is pressing the United Arab Emirates to drop its economic boycott of Israel -- a major sticking point in the proposed takeover of key U.S. ports by a UAE-owned firm.

A joint U.S. agency team traveled to the oil-rich Gulf kingdom last month to discuss the boycott, and a senior Commerce Department official will press Dubai again during a visit this month, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said.

"The United States wants to see the boycott against Israel dropped completely by everybody, and that's our position," he said.

Mr. Ereli said the talks on the boycott were part of a larger drive to nail down a bilateral free-trade agreement with the UAE.

But U.S. lawmakers said the country's participation in the Arab League boycott raises fresh questions about the deal to allow UAE-owned DP World to purchase the management contracts for New York, Baltimore and other major U.S. ports.

"Obviously, it should be a factor" in whether to approve the deal, said Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, who has helped rally bipartisan opposition to the Dubai deal in Congress.

"Security has to come No. 1, but [the boycott's] something that has to be weighed," he said.

Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, New Jersey Democrat, added, "I don't like the fact the UAE is a party -- whether directly or indirectly -- to a boycott, which is illegal under all kinds of international agreements, against Israel, and that it is still sticking by that."

Leading U.S. Jewish groups have long sought to end the boycott.

The boycott "is an anachronistic practice that has been used by the Arab world to unfairly isolate and stigmatize Israel," said Josh Block, a spokesman for the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee. "No company should be participating in the boycott."