Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Araby on Monday expressed his regret for the comments of Mahmoud Ghazlan, spokesperson for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, against the United Arab Emirates, which he called "hostile." Ghazlan criticized the Dubai Police for intending to ask Interpol to arrest the head of the International Union for Muslim Scholars, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who was also a member of the Brotherhood, for condemning Emirati authorities for deporting Syrian nationals demonstrating against Bashar al-Assad in violation of UAE laws. Ghazlan said the UAE would not dare arrest Qaradawi, and threatened to move the whole world to defend him. The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) has denounced Ghazlan's statements, and UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan requested the Egyptian government clarify its position on these statements. In a statement issued by his office on Monday, Araby said: "I call on all political forces to resort to wisdom and prudence and to avoid hostile attitudes and irresponsible statements that can be detrimental to relations between Arab countries, and that cause dissension and division." The statement added: "We are about to prepare for the coming Arab summit in Baghdad, which we hope would restore the spirit of Arab solidarity and unify Arab positions on the challenges and major variables facing the region." Egyptian state-run news service MENA quoted anonymous Egyptian diplomatic sources as saying that there is no problem between Egypt and the UAE, and that Ghazlan's statements reflect the opinion of his group and not the Egyptian government.
