Al Jazeera ‘twisted Abdullah’s statement’

Doha-based channel links UAE minister’s comments on Sinai crash to downing of Russian fighter jet

AUAE minister yesterday condemned the way the Doha-based Al Jazeera news channel has twisted a statement by the foreign minister, Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, about the Russian plane downed by Turkey last month.

During a press conference with a Russian official in Abu Dhabi on Monday, Shaikh Abdullah described as “a terrorist act” the crash of a Russian civilian plane over Sinai which killed 224 passengers.

Investigations showed that the plane was downed by a bomb that had been placed onboard. The Daesh terrorist group claimed responsibility. “We condemned these terrorist actions,” Shaikh Abdullah said.

The minister was then asked by journalists about the Russian warplane shot down last week by Turkey and he said the UAE “offers its deepest condolences to our Russian friends on the incident of the military plane that crashed recently in Syria.”

However, the Qatari channel claimed in a news report yesterday that Shaikh Abdullah “describes the Turkish shooting down of the Russian fighter jet a terrorist act,” ignoring the fact that he was referring to the Russian passenger plane which crashed in Egypt. The Al Jazeera report was broadcast more than once and tweeted by the channel on its main Twitter account.

Dr Anwar Gargash, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, condemned the way Al Jazeera twisted the statement of Shaikh Abdullah. “Let us be clear,” he said on his Twitter account, “the way Al Jazeera channel has dealt with the statement of Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed was not a professional blunder; It was part of a smear campaign [by the media] against the UAE.”