‘Pay attention to the facts and not speculation’ over US election report
Responding to leaks and accusations that it had tried to influence the 2016 US election, and later the Trump government, the UAE on Tuesday called for critics to focus on facts, not rumours.
The country said that it had kept contact with the Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump campaigns in the run-up to the vote.
Dr Anwar Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, tweeted that “attention needs to be paid to facts over innuendo and speculation; the UAE made no effort to influence the 2016 US election”.
“Like other governments friendly to the US, UAE officials had contact with staff and advisers in both 2016 presidential campaigns to inform and be informed of the candidate’s foreign policy positions.”
Dr Gargash’s tweets follow the leaking of hacked emails from the accounts of US political consultants George Nader and Elliott Broidy. The unverified hacks claim to show they tried to lobby Mr Trump and Congress to adopt policies in favour of the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Both men are of interest to special counsel Robert Mueller and his team, who are looking into reports of meddling by foreign powers, specifically Russia, in the presidential poll.
Neither Mr Mueller’s team nor the White House have commented on the leaks, and Mr Broidy is suing Qatar, which he says hacked into his emails and distributed them to journalists.