Manama: Dr Anwar Mohammad Gargash, the UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, has blasted Iranian television channel Al Alam, saying that its attacks against the country were illogical and reflected desperation.
The channel recently screened reports that claimed the UAE, a member of the coalition against the Al Houthi coup in Yemen, was losing troops, both officers and soldiers, and hardware, mainly tanks, in its fights in the country.
However, Dr Gargash on Tuesday poured scorn on the claims, especially those made in a broadcast on August 17.
“In targeting the UAE, Al Alam Channel does not represent an independent editorial line, but rather an official spiteful approach,” he posted on his Twitter account. “The level of the screams by the channel is consistent with the level of the pain suffered in Yemen,” he said.
Dr Gargash added that the abuse by Al Alam was a source of pride for the UAE.
“The source of the insults is an orchestrated media that despises the Arabs. It is a media that promotes a sectarian agenda that our ability to confront has become very clear,” he said on the account followed by 145,000 people.
“The accusations by Al Alam Channel [against the UAE] are not logical at all and are shrouded in sectarianism. However, they seem to reflect the deep pain suffered from the Arab cohesion and the success that we are achieving together in Yemen,” he said.
In another tweet, Dr Gargash said that “a more ominous delirium” was expressed by the Adviser to the Iranian leader and Head of Centre for Strategic Research of Iran’s Expediency Council Ali Akbar Velayati.
“A more serious delirium is the accusation by Velayati, on July 30 that Saudi Arabia and the UAE supported Daesh. Unfortunately, Iran is now in the stage of distributing accusations,” he said. “He should have explained the intervention of Tehran against the people of Syria and its attempts to undermine stability in Bahrain and Yemen as well its support for the marginalisation of Sunnis in Iraq. This is blatant interference in the domestic affairs of the Arabs.”
The minister said that Iran’s insistence that terrorism and extremism were Sunni phenomena is sharply contrasted by the terrorism perpetrated by Hezbollah and its cells as well as by the atrocities of the so-called Popular Mobilisation Committees in Iraq.
“Our definition of terrorism should be comprehensive and objective,” he said.
