(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) Diplomatic ties between Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) suffered a setback when the former termed the latter's warning for not supporting the Gulf-led military operation in Yemen "unacceptable."
The UAE Minister for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash earlier this week warned Pakistan against not joining the military offensive in war-struck Yemen, threatening a "heavy price."
"The UAE minister's statement is in contravention of international diplomatic norms, and is totally unacceptable," Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said in a statement on Sunday.
"Pakistan is a self-respecting nation, and the UAE minister's statement is tantamount to humiliating its (Pakistan's) self-respect," Nisar said.
He said Pakistan had had brotherly relations with Saudi Arabia, and the UAE: "We have time and again assured that if the territorial integrity of Saudi Arabia is violated, we will defend that," Nisar said.
Pakistan has already turned down a Saudi request for sending its troops to join the Gulf coalition in Yemen. Pakistan's parliament on Friday also passed a unanimous resolution asking the government to stay neutral in the Yemen conflict.
Ties between Pakistan and UAE have not been very good in recent past following the former's growing diplomatic and business relations with Qatar and cancellation of several licenses earlier granted to the UAE's royal family for hunting of rare birds in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Saudi minister for Religious Affairs, Shaikh Saleh al-Fawzan has landed at Islamabad airport on an official visit. Talking to press members, he refused to comment on the statement of UAE's state minister for foreign affairs, saying: "This was his opinion. I do not want to comment on that. We expect good from Pakistan."
He termed the Pakistani parliament's unanimous resolution calling upon the government to stay neutral in Yemen conflict "an internal matter of Pakistan."
Fractious Yemen has remained in turmoil since last September, when the Houthis overran the capital, Sanaa, from which they have sought to extend their influence to other parts of the country.
The Saudi-led coalition says the campaign is in response to appeals by embattled President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi - now in Saudi Arabia - to "save the [Yemeni] people from the Houthi militias".
The Houthis have slammed the offensive as being an unwarranted "Saudi-American aggression" against the Yemeni people.
Some Gulf States accuse Shiite Iran of supporting Yemen's Houthi insurgency.
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