Dubai: The UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Dr Anwar Mohammad Gargash, has lashed out at pro-Iran media for continuing to disseminate false news about Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
“False news from Iranian sources, such as the Fars News Agency and Al Akhbar newspaper, against the UAE and Saudi Arabia, continue,” he posted on his Twitter account. “Let us check the source and the confused ones who initiate false news to targeting us” he said, adding that it was a part of a “distortion” campaign.
On Tuesday, Fars News Agency claimed that Saudi Arabia and the UAE were recruiting thousands of African mercenaries to serve in their military forces overseas, including Yemen.
“The Kingdom is likely using Chadian mercenaries in its operations abroad,” the agency said, citing quotes by “Saudi sources” to Al Quds Al Arabi newspaper, a London-based daily reportedly funded since 2013 by Qatar.
The article alleged that Saudi Arabia had signed secret agreements with N’Djamena, enabling its enlistment of thousands of Chadian mercenaries.
The daily also claimed that the UAE was “seeking to recruit thousands of mercenaries from Uganda to deploy in Yemen and Somalia.”
“The UAE is eyeing Ugandan recruits amid the prospect of Sudan’s withdrawal of its forces from the Saudi-led coalition,” the report said.
Iranian and pro-Iranian media and their supporters have been publishing and posting aggressive anti-Saudi Arabia and anti-UAE news, making use of fake news, baseless allegations, ugly distortions and blatant lies to discredit them locally, regionally and internationally.
The war in Yemen against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, the situation in Syria and Iraq, the recent developments in Syria and the Qatar crisis have been exploited by the fake news media to target Riyadh and Abu Dhabi for their positive stances.
