Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the United Arab Emirates an “advanced democracy” in a video he posted on Twitter on Monday, before promptly deleting it upon realising his mistake.
The video Netanyahu posted was an excerpt from his interview with Sky News Arabia, in which he talked about the peace deal and normalisation of ties between Israel and UAE last week. When asked how the deal would serve peace in the region, the Israeli premier said: “Vastly. The deal connects the UAE with Israel; both of them are advanced democracies and their societies are advanced.”
Shortly afterwards the video had disappeared – deleted by Netanyahu, possibly after fact-checking the UAE’s record on human rights, freedom of expression, and democracy.
While composed of seven nominally autonomous emirates, the UAE is dominated by the emirate of Abu Dhabi, due to its vast oil wealth and its larger landmass compared to the other members of the federation.
The Emirates’ democratic rating is classed as “not free” and it has a score of only 17 out of 100, according to the US research group Freedom House which studies political freedom and democratic levels throughout the world. In regards to the political rights that the Gulf monarchy provides, it scored a mere five out of 40.
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