UAE 'will not allow Turkey to lead Arab world'

The Arab world would not be led by Turkey said a senior UAE diplomat on Wednesday in the Gulf country's first comment since last week’s twitter spat.

Anwar Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Emirates, said there was a need for Arab countries to rally around the "Arab axis" of Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

"The sectarian and partisan view is not an acceptable alternative, and the Arab world will not be led by Tehran or Ankara," he wrote on his official Twitter page.

Last week, the UAE’s foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan retweeted a post on Twitter in which a user made allegations of historic misdoings by the "ancestors of Erdogan."

The tweet was first posted by a user called "Ali al-Iraqi", presenting himself as an Iraqi dentist living in Germany.

"Ali al-Iraqi" said Fahreddin Pasha - Medina governor from 1916 to 1919 - "committed a crime against the people of Medina by stealing their money, kidnapping them and putting them on trains that took them to Syria and Istanbul".

The user added: "Those are the ancestors of Erdogan and this is the history that they have with Arab Muslims."

Erdogan hit back on Wednesday, telling the minister to "know your place" as he railed against the Twitter user's "slanderous claims".

"Know your place! It means you do not know this country, you do not know Erdogan, you do not know about Erdogan's ancestors," he retorted.

"When Fahreddin Pasha was protecting Medina... where were your ancestors?"

On Thursday, the Turkish foreign ministry summoned the Emirati charge d'affaires in Ankara and complained about the post. Turkey also said it will rename the street that houses the UAE embassy after the former Ottoman governor in question.

Relations between the UAE and Turkey are filled with distrust as Ankara supports Qatar in a six-month crisis with its Gulf neighbours including the UAE, who have placed the small country under an economic blockade.