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Tribune News Network
Doha
The recently leaked emails that appear to have been written by the UAE's Ambassador to the US, Yousef al Otaiba, clearly show the extent of his country's animosity towards Turkey.
"We don't want Turkey or Qatar to be able to shape a dinner menu, much less a country," Otaiba wrote in an email to a prominent New York Times columnist in April.
The emails confirm the perception that the UAE treats Turkey, along with Qatar, as one of the main antagonists with competing regional visions, according to a report in Daily Sabah newspaper.
Otaiba believes Turkey, a constitutionally secular country, is a part of the Islamist axis that can undermine the UAE's role in the region.
The UAE's man in Washington, as expected, has lobbied against the Turkish government on several occasions, according to Daily Sabah.
Otaiba also sent various emails to American officials, including those working on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and the White House, stressing his claim that the democratically elected President Recep Tayyip Erdof1'f0an has become more autocratic than Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, who took over the government through a bloody coup.
Several officials in the Turkish government believe the UAE was complicit in financing the failed military coup last year.
The latest rift in the Gulf has pushed Turkey to flex its muscles in the region to protect Qatar while further antagonising the UAE. Experts do not expect imminent reconciliation between the two countries.
