‘Surprise and relief’: Scribes from UAE, Iran react to their leaders’ meeting

Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan with PM Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Saturday. (PTI)

As United Arab Emirate’s Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan met Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on the sidelines of the BRICS Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi, media delegations from the respective countries — sharing the room at Bharat Mandapam — expressed surprise and relief at the development.

The UAE has been at the receiving end of a series of Iranian strikes on its cities with Tehran calling it a proxy of the United States.

Meanwhile, as tensions remained between the phrasing of the war in West Asia in the summit document had divided Iran and UAE in the last six months. However,  as India achieved the much-anticipated consensus at the BRICS summit between UAE and Iran on Saturday, the visiting leaders from two sides also held a one on one meeting.

While the media contingent from the UAE was bigger — around 20 people comprising crews from state-owned Abu Dhabi TV, some other news channels and a group of newspaper journalists, Iranian media group was relatively smaller — representing state-owned IRNA news agency and several other outlets.

At the International Media Centre, from where they operated throughout the day, both sides kept to different sides of the room, neither talking to each other, nor about each other. A journalist from a prominent UAE newspaper, who didn’t want to be named said, “I have been asked by several people here about how I feel about my Iranian counterparts. I would say we are all professionals, doing our work, while politicians and leaders are doing what they do,” she said, adding, “At a human level, none of us would have a problem with each other.”

Her colleague added, “I will be happy to talk and exchange pleasantries if someone walks up to me. Having said that, we are here because of our countries ties with India, and here to talk about it.”

While a section of mediapersons accompanied respective leaders from both countries, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had also invited and hosted social media influencers from all BRICS countries for over a week, taking them to Agra and Mumbai as well.

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Over a 1,000 journalists were present at the media centre on Saturday, including over a 100 who were visiting from various BRICS countries, including China, Russia and South Africa.

Divya A reports on travel, tourism, culture and social issues - not necessarily in that order - for The Indian Express. She's been a journalist for over a decade now, working with Khaleej Times and The Times of India, before settling down at Express. Besides writing/ editing news reports, she indulges her pen to write short stories. As Sanskriti Prabha Dutt Fellow for Excellence in Journalism, she is researching on the lives of the children of sex workers in India. ... Read More