Arab News

LONDON: Turkey sees in the Arab world a strategic space for its historical dreams, UAE Minister for State of Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash tweeted on Saturday.

“Amr Moussa's statement about the Turkish strategic threat to the Arab world did not come from a vacuum, but rather diagnoses of Ankara’s policy towards its Arab surroundings,” Gargash tweeted.

“(It is) an important statement in its timing that highlights the Turkish expansionist strategy and its exploitation of the state of weakness experienced by the Arab regional system,” he added.

In another tweet, Gargash said: “Over the years, relations of neighborliness and respect have strengthened economic and political ties between Turkey and its Arab region.”

“(They have been) replaced by a program of expansion and leadership that sees the Arab world as a strategic space for (Turkish) historical dreams, a policy far from wisdom that will implicate Ankara and its interests in the coming stages.”

Gargash’s tweets come soon after Egyptian President Abdel Fatteh El-Sisi ordered his army to be ready to carry out any mission inside or outside the country to protect its national security amid tensions over Turkey’s intervention in neighboring Libya.

Turkey supports the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli, which, with Turkish support, has reversed a 14-month assault on the capital by Khalifa Haftar’s eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA).