Reuters NEIL HALL
The UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Anwar Gargash, announced that his country wants “normal relations with Turkey,” citing encouraging signs to achieve this.
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“We want to say to Turkey that we want normal relations that respect sovereignty between us and it,” Gargash said in an interview with “Sky News Arabia”, published on Sunday evening.
He added, “We want Ankara not to be the main supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood. We want Ankara to restore the compass in its Arab relations.”
The Emirati minister stressed, “We do not have any reason to disagree with Turkey, there is no problem. We see today that recent Turkish indicators such as openness with Europe are encouraging.”
And he added that there is “a great sensitivity in the region about the role of the Muslim Brotherhood and their incitement, and adopting this group is not in the interest of Turkey’s Arab relations.”
And Gargash previously mentioned, during a press conference on January 7, that his country is Turkey’s “the number one main partner” in the Middle East, indicating that the UAE “does not cherish any hostility” with Ankara.
Relations between the UAE and Turkey are witnessing continuous tension on the background of several issues, including the crises in Syria and Yemen, especially Libya, where Ankara supports the Government of National Accord and its head, Fayez al-Sarraj, while Abu Dhabi supports the “Libyan National Army” led by Khalifa Haftar.
The tension between the two countries is also due to the issue of the Turkish government’s relations with the “Muslim Brotherhood” group, which the UAE authorities consider a terrorist organization.
Source: “Sky News” + agencies
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