UAE says Turkey should drop backing for Muslim Brotherhood to mend ties

The United Arab Emirates is calling on Turkey to stop being the “primary backer” of the Muslim Brotherhood, UAE Foreign Minister Anwar Gargash said.

Plans to normalise relations between Qatar and its Gulf neighbours, announced this month, have also spurred efforts to mend ties between the UAE and Turkey, which is a close regional ally of Qatar.

Turkey and the UAE have locked horns on numerous regional issues including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s support of the Muslim Brotherhood, a pan-Islamist political movement that operates Islamist networks across the Middle East. The UAE and its Gulf allies view the Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are suspicious of Turkey’s influence in Arab countries and view its regional goals as conflicts of interest. Turkey has competed with the UAE and other regional powers for political and military control in Libya.

Speaking with Sky News Arabia, Gargash said the UAE had no reason to be in conflict with Turkey, according to Bloomberg.

“We want to tell Turkey that we want normal relations with it that respect mutual sovereignty,” Gargash said. “We don’t have any problems with Turkey, like border issues or other such issues.”