Vice President Joe Biden found himself on Sunday explaining to the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates that he did not mean to imply in recent remarks that the UAE was supporting al-Qaida fighters in Syria, reported the Associated Press.
Biden called Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and a top UAE leader, after the country requested a "formal clarification" on Sunday from Biden regarding comments claiming that America's Middle Eastern allies were sending weapons and cash to radicals fighting in Syria.
Biden clarified his remarks and said he understands the "strong steps" taken by the UAE to counter extremists in the Middle East, according to the White House. His remarks, the White House said, were instead regarding early stages of the civil war, and "not meant to imply that the UAE had facilitated or supported" al-Qaida or ISIS.
It's the second time in two days Biden was pressured to apologize to a Middle Eastern ally over comments regarding their support of extremists.
On Saturday, Biden apologized to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the White House said in a statement.
"The vice president apologized for any implication that Turkey or other allies and partners in the region had intentionally supplied or facilitated the growth of ISIL or other violent extremists in Syria."
The controversial comments came from Biden on Thursday during a question-and-answer session at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said the Associated Press.
"Our biggest problem is our allies" engaged in a proxy Sunni-Shiite war against the Syrian regime, Biden said, specifically naming Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. "What did they do? They poured hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad - except that the people who were being supplied were (Jabhat) al-Nusra and al-Qaida and the extremist elements of jihadis coming from other parts of the world."
