Islamabad: Islamabad yesterday hit out at the United Arab Emirates for condemning a parliamentary vote by Pakistani lawmakers to stay out of the conflict in Yemen, in a rare display of discord between the two allies.
Pakistan’s parliament on Friday passed a unanimous resolution backing the government’s commitment to protect Saudi Arabia’s territory from Shia Houthi rebels, but declined Riyadh’s request for Pakistani troops, ships and warplanes inside Yemen.
Anwar Gargash, the UAE’s minister of state for foreign affairs, lashed out at Pakistan’s vote on his Twitter account Saturday, terming it “contradictory and dangerous and unexpected”, and accusing Islamabad of siding with Iran, which is accused of backing the rebels.
He added Pakistan’s stand would come at a high cost.
Pakistan’s interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan hit back last night in an unusually strongly worded statement, accusing the UAE of “making threats”.
“This is not only ironic but a thought-provoking moment that a minister of UAE is hurling threats at Pakistan. The statement of the UAE minister is in stark violation of all diplomatic norms prevalent according to the principals of international relations,” he said.
AFP
