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Jan 10, 2021
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UAE Minister Of State For Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash: We Want Turkey To Stop Supporting The Muslim Brotherhood; There Can Be Different Opinions Regarding Iran, But We Cannot Ignore Its Threats

#8615 | 02:51
Source: Sky News Arabia (UAE)

UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash spoke about the UAE's relations with Turkey and Iran in an interview that aired on Sky News Arabia (U.K.) on January 10, 2021. He said that there is no reason for the UAE to be in conflict with Turkey, because today, the UAE is Turkey's biggest trading partner in the region. He added that the UAE wants to normalize relations with Turkey, based on respecting the sovereignty of each country. However, the UAE wants Ankara to stop being the main supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood. Gargash said that the only way to solve the problem with Iran is to prevent escalation and to take diplomatic and political measures. He said that while the GCC countries have different views of Iran, the GCC shares a united front when the security of one of the member states is threatened, and he cannot ignore the actual threat to Saudi Arabia, its civilian facilities, and its citizens.

For more about Anwar Gargash, see MEMRI TV clip No. 8213.

Anwar Gargash: "There is no reason for us to be in conflict with Turkey, because today we are, in fact, Turkey's biggest trading partner in the Arab region. I believe that our main problem with Turkey is its policy towards the Arab region..."

Interviewer: "And its intervention, so you say..."

Gargash: "Exactly, it is our duty to say this. However, we would like to tell Turkey that we want normal relations that respect the sovereignty of each other. We want Ankara, for example, to stop being the Muslim Brotherhood's main supporter. We want Ankara to reexamine its relations with the Arabs. There is no reason for disagreement between us and Turkey, neither on border nor on other matters.

[...]

"Is there a problem [with Iran]? Yes, there is. How can it be solved? The solution is to avoid escalation, and to take diplomatic and political measures.

[...]

"For the past forty years, there has been a wide range of opinions towards Iran in the GCC. However, there is also a kind of [a joint] point of view concerning collective security. Any threat to one of the GCC states – whether political, diplomatic, or military – is considered a threat to all of them."

Interviewer: "A unified position towards any threat."

Gargash: "Indeed, a unified position. As you said, I cannot ignore the actual threat to Saudi Arabia – to its civilian facilities, and to its citizens. However, I truly believe that the way to the future is through resoling these conflicts and struggles, because the world has also begun to change. The international attention to the Arab region, to the Middle East, and to the Gulf region, is different from what it used to be 30 years ago. Therefore, we must be aware of these changes and be open to them."

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