United Arab Emirates foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan defended President Trump on Wednesday.

Sheikh al-Nahyan said the refugee pause was not anti-Muslim.

The Times of India reported:

US President Donald Trump’s travel ban on citizens of seven Muslim-majority nations is not anti-Islam, the United Arab Emirates foreign minister said on Wednesday.

Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, whose country like neighbouring Saudi Arabia is a close ally of Washington, said it was “wrong to say” that the decision by the new US administration was “directed against a particular religion”.

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“The United States has made … a sovereign decision,” he said at a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, pointing out that it was “provisional” and did not apply to “the large majority” of the world’s Muslims.