Biden calls UAE prince to clarify Syria remarks

Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday called the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates to clarify that he did not mean to imply in his remarks last week that the Gulf ally was supporting Al-Qaeda fighters in Syria, the White House said.

Biden spoke with Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and a key Emirati leader, the White House said.

Sunday's phone call came after a day after Biden offered a similar apology to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about comments he made made at Harvard University on Thursday.

Biden, who is known for his occasional verbal gaffes, angered U.S. allies when he suggested that Turkey, Qatar and the UAE had extended "billions of dollars and tens of thousands of tons of weapons" to extremist groups trying to overthrow Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s president.

Earlier Sunday, the UAE requested "a formal clarification" from Biden on comments that America's allies in the Middle East sent weapons and cash to extremists fighting in Syria.

The White House said Biden clarified his remarks and recognized the UAE's "strong steps" to counter extremists and participation in U.S.-led airstrikes against fighters from the group Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The White House statement said Biden's remarks regarding the early stages of the Syrian civil war "were not meant to imply that the UAE had facilitated or supported" Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State group or other extremists in Syria.

"In the phone call, Biden offered his apology to the UAE for any implications in his recent statements that may have been understood to mean that the UAE had supported the growth of some of the terrorist organizations in the region," WAM, the official UAE news agency, said.

The UAE is one of the Arab allies taking part in U.S.-led air strikes against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in Syria. The others are Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.

The UAE had expressed surprise after over Biden's comments.

Biden's remarks were "amazing and ignore the role of the Emirates in the fight against extremism and terrorism," Anwar Gargash, UAE junior minister for foreign affairs, said in a statement carried late on Saturday by WAM.

In a similar apology to Turkey, Biden’s office said on Saturday, "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 the ISIL or other violent extremists in Syria."

Wire services