UAE protests to Iraq over media comments

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (Reuters) -- The United Arab Emirates summoned Iraq's envoy to the Gulf Arab state on Monday to protest what it said were Iraqi media attacks against the UAE.

The official WAM news agency said the foreign ministry delivered the UAE's protest to the Iraqi charge d'affaires and asked him to tell his government "to ensure that no such behavior is repeated."

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WAM said official Iraqi newspapers had during the United Nations Millennium Summit earlier this month attacked the UAE and the head of the UAE delegation to the summit.

It did not give details.

Iraq in July reopened its embassy in the UAE, 10 years after ties between the two Arab states were severed over Baghdad's invasion of Kuwait. The UAE in April became the fourth Gulf Arab state to reactivate diplomatic relations with Iraq when it reopened its embassy in Baghdad.

Tensions resurfaced last week between Iraq and Kuwait when Baghdad alleged that Kuwait was stealing Iraqi oil from a border field and said it was ready to take unspecified measures against Kuwait.

Kuwait denied the allegations and said that its neighbor continued to pose a real threat to the oil-rich Gulf region.

The UAE, which joined a U.S.-led alliance in 1991 that drove Iraqi troops out of Kuwait, has been at the forefront of Arab states calling for an end to crippling sanctions imposed on Iraq by the United Nations after the Kuwait invasion.

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