Erdogan adviser warns UAE friendship ‘more dangerous than enmity’

Yasin Aktay, an adviser to Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, warned that friendship with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is “more dangerous than its enmity”.

In an article published in Turkish Yeni Safak newspaper, Aktay said everyone recognises the UAE’s hostility towards Turkey believing that “it is blocking the road before Turkey”.

“The UAE’s hostility does not recognise morals or rules. They are based on intrigues, games and systematic campaigns,” he said, stressing that Ankara is trying, through its “most humane and positive policies to curb these immoral and illegal movements”.

According to the Turkish official, the UAE along with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrain has demanded Qatar sever trade ties with Iran in exchange for lifting the blockade imposed on Doha, at a time when the volume of trade between the UAE and Iran reached $13.5 billion.

“We have no problem with that, and let the volume of trade exchange between Islamic countries increase much more but why is Qatar the only one blamed and punished for that?” he said.

“This striking contradiction in the Emirati relations raises a question about the UAE’s loyalty and friendship with its most important Saudi ally,” he added.

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