As Ambassador of Afghanistan to the UAE, Abdul Fareed Zakaria, says he categorically refutes the allegation reported by the Middle East Eye (MEE) News Website which is based in London, UK and owned by Qatar.

The UAE has been the most trusted partner of Afghanistan in the region for many years, he says.  

“In all our encounters with the UAE leadership and officials, peace and reconciliation between the Afghan Government and the Taliban played the most important part of our discussions,” he said. 

He said the UAE, as the country at the forefront of promoting peace and stability in Afghanistan, has hosted three out of four quad lateral meetings between Afghanistan, US, Saudi Arabi, and the UAE, as well as the first peace talks in Abu Dhabi in 2018. 

“Not even once punitive treatment of the Taliban leadership has been raised during these meetings. Secondly, Abu Dhabi was preparing to hold the second round of peace talks in the middle of January 2019, and it is unrealistic to believe that such a conversation, as reported by MEE, took place between H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed and the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, on January 12, 2019,” he said. 

“I advise the MEE News to halt its poisonous propaganda and allow the Afghan peace process to take its normal course without furthering its ill intended propaganda,” he says.