United Arab Emirates 'amazed' by Biden's Syria remarks

The United Arab Emirates has expressed surprise after the US vice president suggested that the Gulf state had armed and financed rebels in Syria, along with other regional powers, Al Jazeera reports.

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

Gargash asked for Biden to clarify the comments, which he said had given "a false impression about the role of the UAE... at a time when it is actually supporting efforts to overcome" the armed groups.