Accessibility links

Breaking News

Biden Issues Second Apology to Arab Allies


Vice President Joe Biden speaks to students, faculty and staff at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Mass., Oct. 2, 2014.
Vice President Joe Biden speaks to students, faculty and staff at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Mass., Oct. 2, 2014.

U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden has apologized for the second time in two days for comments he made suggesting that the United States' Arab allies armed and funded terrorists in Syria.

Biden called Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Sunday to say that he did not intend to imply that the United Arab Emirates supports terrorists.

Last week, during a foreign policy address at Harvard University, Biden described U.S. allies as the “biggest problem” in the fight against terrorism. He went on to name Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Turkey was the first to complain about a different remark made on the same occasion in which Biden claimed that Turkish President Recep Tayyep Erdogan had told him Turkey was wrong to let foreign fighters cross the Turkish border into Syria.

Biden called Erdogan to apologize after the Turkish leader denied that he had made the comment to Biden or that Turkey had allowed foreign fighters to cross its borders.

  • 16x9 Image

    VOA News

    The Voice of America provides news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of over 326 million people. Stories with the VOA News byline are the work of multiple VOA journalists and may contain information from wire service reports.

XS
SM
MD
LG