UAE slams countries seeking to expand their influence in Arab world

Cairo: The UAE Sunday accused unnamed non-Arab governments of promoting radicalism and expansionism at the expense of Arabs.

“The region is plagued by a radical, agitating speech pursued by governments preoccupied with expanding their influence at the expense of the Arab world,” UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr Anwar Garghash, tweeted without giving names.

“Speech of threats from countries, which still dream of their past empires and have no positive messages, are categorically rejected,” he added without elaborating.

Dr Gargash’s comment comes a day after head of communication at the Turkish presidency, Fahrettin Altun, accused the UAE, Egypt and Russia of violating the UN resolutions by allegedly supporting Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar whose forces are fighting a rival government allied with Turkey.

Turkey and the allied Libyan government based in Tripoli last month signed controversial maritime demarcation and security cooperation pacts.