UAE slams Egyptian Brotherhood comments

The UAE has called on Egyptian authorities to take a stand on the "offensive" comments of Dr. Mahmoud Ghozlan, the official spokesperson of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. UAE foreign minister Sheikh Abdulla Ben Zayed Al-Nahyan said on his Twitter account: "I hope that the Egyptian government will reveal its position towards Ghozlan's reprehensible comments against the UAE." Ghozlan had earlier condemned Dubai police chief Dahi Khalfan's declaration that the UAE was still considering an arrest warrant against Egyptian theologian Yusuf Al-Qaradawi. Ghozlan said: "The UAE dare not arrest Al-Qaradawi, this is just psychological warfare and demagoguery." Khalfan's declaration came on the back of an interview with Al-Qaradawi on the Al-Jazeera news channel, in which he condemned the Dubai police force for arresting Syrian citizens who were holding a pro-democracy protest in front of their country's consulate in Dubai. Earlier, the secretary-general of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Abdullatif Ben Rached Al-Zayani, said that Ghozlan's comments were "irresponsible and lacked wisdom, and don't help efforts between Egypt and the GCC countries to strengthen their ties." Al-Zayani said "what is considered offensive against the UAE is considered the same for all GCC countries".