[citation needed] Otaiba was then selected to attend the International Fellow at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces (ICAF) at the National Defense University in Washington, in preparation for an assignment to join the immediate staff of then UAE Armed Forces Chief of Staff Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a position he assumed upon graduating from ICAF in 2000.

[4] At age 26, Otaiba became senior adviser to Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and, until his new posting, as director of international affairs for the court of the crown prince, he also served as the country's principal security, anti-terrorism and defence liaison with other governments.

[5] In 2006 and 2007 Otaiba's role was described by Kristofer Harrison, a Defense and State Department advisor during the George W. Bush administration who worked closely with Otaiba, as "crucial helping to talk other countries in the region into backing President George W. Bush's troop surge in the Iraq War" - a role that was confirmed by Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr.

[5] Upon his arriving in the capital, Otaiba hired Amy Little-Thomas, a former State Department staffer in the Bush administration, who became the UAE embassy's chief of protocol and created the nonprofit Oasis Foundation, his private foundation in connection with his work as ambassador "to advance positive relations between the UAE, a significant American ally (particularly in the Middle East), and the United States.” In 2016, a court ordered one of Oasis Foundation's board members to pay restitution for funds taken from the charity for personal expenditures - funds originally deposited and subsequently replenished by Otaiba.

[7] Otaiba worked closely with Howard Berman, then the Democratic chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, on an agreement that would allow the UAE to obtain nuclear materials from the US for a civilian program.

[1] In July 2010, remarks made by Otaiba were interpreted as supporting a United States military strike on nuclear reactors in Iran.

[9] From 2015 onwards Otaiba was a leading voice in Washington for the War in Yemen, where the UAE operated torture warehouses[10] and funded death squads.

[19] In the op-ed, Otaiba expressed enthusiasm for stronger ties between Israel and UAE, touting the benefits of accelerated economic growth and stability throughout the Middle East in addition to security but said that Israeli plans for annexation and talk of normalization were a contradiction.

[19] Along with a mutual interest in creating a unified front against the opposing forces of Iran, the concerns detailed in Otaiba's op-ed and planning with Berkowitz helped bring vested parties to the negotiating table to identify a better solution,[19] ultimately resulting in a normalization agreement reached in August 2020[20] and officially committed to in September 2020 with the signing of the Abraham Accords on the South Lawn of the White House.

[21][24][25][22] In August 2020, Otaiba issued a statement extolling the Israel–United Arab Emirates peace agreement as "a win for diplomacy and for the region",[26] adding how it "lowers tensions and creates new energy for positive change".

[36][37] In 2015, the Ambassador and Mrs. Al Otaiba were the recipients of the second annual Joseph E. Robert Jr. Prize in Philanthropy created to honor families who have given back to the hospital, after having a personal experience with the institution.

In early June 2017, an anonymous hacker group named GlobaLeaks began distributing emails to multiple news outlets that they had hacked from the inbox of Al Otaiba.

[39] At the time, The Huffington Post suggested that, regardless of intent, the revelations were capable of dramatically undermining U.S. goals in the Middle East and that the leaked emails were being used to embarrass “Washington's Most Powerful Ambassador”.

[49] The email leaks also revealed close contacts between the UAE and US-based think tanks, including the United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) and the Counter Extremism Project (CEP).