Emirati academic's barbed tweet on Pakistan exposes UAE unease over Mecca pact

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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. 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