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Emirati academic's barbed tweet on Pakistan exposes UAE unease over Mecca pact Submitted by MEE staff on Sun, 08/16/2026 - 06:02 Disparaging remarks by Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a former aide to UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed, on Pakistan's ‘poverty, illiteracy’ and nuclear arsenal spark online backlash. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan shakes hands with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman looks on after signing a joint defence agreement in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on 7 August 2026 (Handout/Turkish presidency's press office/AFP) Off Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a prominent Emirati political analyst and former aide to UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed, has mocked Pakistan for its “poor” economic and social indicators and yet “opportunistically posturing itself to defend a country among the 20 largest economies in the world”. On 15 August, Abdulla wrote on X: “It is one of the paradoxes of time that a country where a quarter of its population is poor, a third of its population is illiterate, its national income is $400 billion, and it has suffered from corrupt military rule since its founding, chronic internal unrest, and wars with its closest neighbors—yet all its qualifications are 170 nuclear bombs—opportunistically postures itself to defend a country among the 20 largest economies in the world.” من مفارقة الزمان ان دولة ربع سكانها فقراء وثلث سكانها لا يعرف القراءة والكتابة ودخلها القومي 400 مليار $ وتعاني من حكم عسكري فاسد منذ تأسيسها واضطرابات داخلية مزمنة وحروب مع اقرب جيرانها وكل مؤهلاتها 170 قنبلة نووية، تتنطع بشكل انتهازي للدفاع عن دولة ضمن 20 اكبر اقتصاد في العالم — Abdulkhaleq Abdulla (@Abdulkhaleq_UAE) August 15, 2026 Abdulla was apparently referring to the Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed on 17 September 2025, which treats any act of aggression against one as an act against both. But his post, with more than 1 million views since, also indicates the anxieties that the broader Mecca Joint Defence Agreement between Pakistan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia has triggered in his native UAE. Abdulla’s disparaging remarks against Pakistan—nearly 1.6 million Pakistanis reside in the UAE and remain major source of remittance flows to their country—have sparked a backlash, with one user commenting: “Comparing poverty and the size of the economy with the political stance is misleading; Pakistan is a sovereign state with interests and alliances, and its eligibility for international positions is not conditioned on its wealth. Moreover, reducing its qualifications to nuclear weapons ignores its demographic and geopolitical weight and its economy, which has exceeded 400 billion dollars.” (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Several users posted his older tweets to point out contradictions in his stances over relations with Pakistan and Israel, including the one in which he wrote: “Damn every Gulf Arab tweep who calls for normalization with the Israeli enemy.” Another X user posted Abdulla’s this post from 2015: “Gulf and Saudi diplomacy should have moved with force and weight, been convincing, and utilized all its capabilities to win the vote for Pakistan's participation in Operation Decisive Storm”, the military intervention led by Saudi Arabia in Yemen. كان ينبغي ان تتحرك الدبلوماسية الخليجية والسعودية بقوة وثقل وتكون مقنعة وتستخدم كل امكانياتها لكسب التصويت لمشاركة باكستان في #عاصفة_الحزم — Abdulkhaleq Abdulla (@Abdulkhaleq_UAE) April 10, 2015 Earlier also, Abdulla had questioned the logic of the new agreement. "Congratulations on the establishment of this alliance, but strengthening Gulf military and political cooperation and unifying the Gulf house is far more important than investing in regional military and political cooperation that includes countries whose credibility and ability to confront the Iranian-Israeli threat are not taken seriously," Abdulla wrote in one of several posts on the matter on 7 August, the day the Mecca agreement was signed. "One of the conditions for the success of any alliance is identifying the common enemy. So who is the enemy for the countries of this alliance?" Abdulaziz al-Tuwaijri, former head of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Isesco), the OIC's Rabat-based cultural and educational body, had replied to the tweet by hinting at the UAE's ties with Israel, stating: "Anyone who betrays and collaborates with the Zionists will never find security." (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Reacting to Abdulla's Pakistan tweet, Al-Tuwaijri, wrote: "It seems that the Mecca Agreement syndrome has left you dizzy". وهذه ما محلّها من الإعراب؟ يبدو أن متلازمة اتفاقية مكة دوّختك.#اتفاقية_مكة_للدفاع_المشترك https://t.co/uMW7Rr4TBg pic.twitter.com/Laky5gyHkm — عبدالعزيز بن عثمان التويجري (@AOAltwaijri) August 15, 2026 Behind the words, a deeper rivalry The exchange points to a deeper rift. The relations between the UAE, the first Gulf country to officially recognise Israel, and Saudi Arabia, which has refused to recognise Israel despite American pressure, have soured in the recent past largely over the latter’s support for Southern Yemeni separatist groups. Against this backdrop, the Mecca defence pact is being seen by analysts as a counter to the UAE-Israel military cooperation, which remains unpopular outside Israeli and American circles. As Theodore Singer, a former US intelligence officer, told Middle East Eye, "At first glance, the UAE-Israel bloc delivers more tangible gains for both parties, but the Mecca pact may ultimately resonate more broadly and less transactionally.” For example, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he visited the UAE at the height of the war on Iran, Abu Dhabi moved to deny the official statement. In contrast, the Mecca pact was celebrated in public. It was announced that Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan joined together for Friday prayer in the holiest city in Islam. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Some analysts say that the very fact that Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have publicly codified their agreement gives it room to grow, potentially in ways the UAE-Israel alliance is unable to. Saudi unease over Cairo’s UAE ‘subordination’ The same UAE-Saudi rivalry that appears to underpin Abdulla's remarks is also playing out over who has been left out of the pact. Saudi Arabia is learnt to have opposed Egypt’s entry into the new defence pact, citing growing unease over Cairo's "subordination" to the UAE as one of the reasons. Sources had told MEE that while Egypt sent air defence systems and fighter jets to Abu Dhabi in response to Iranian attacks, and Sisi visited UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed more than once during the war, no such steps were taken towards Saudi Arabia. They concluded that Riyadh had become increasingly alarmed by Sisi's alignment with Abu Dhabi. The sources said this was also due to Riyadh seeing several Emirati policies as running against Egypt's own strategic interests. These include the UAE’s involvement in Somaliland, its strategic relationship with Israel, its support for Ethiopia during disputes over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and its backing of the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan. Saudi-UAE Tensions News Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19 Update Date Override 0