Erdogan postpones visit to UAE, saying leader is ill

Turkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan listens as Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud speaks during a joint news conference in Istanbul, Turkey, on Dec. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File)

Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday announced he was postponing a visit to Abu Dhabi because Emirati leader Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan had a “health problem” -- then deleted the message.

The message, posted by his team on X, said Erdogan had talked with Al Nahyan by phone.

“During the course of the call, President Erdogan expressed his sadness over the health problem experienced by (President) Al Nahyan and wished him a prompt recovery,” said the three-paragraph message posted by Erdogan’s communications team.

Erdogan would travel to the United Arab Emirates at a later date, still to be determined, the message added.

Although the message -- of which AFP has a screen grab -- was quickly deleted from the account, it had already been picked up by official Turkish media.

As well as being pulled from X, Turkiye’s state broadcaster took down its article on Erdogan that mentioned the Emirati leader’s health problem.

Contacted by AFP, neither the Turkish presidency nor the Emirati authorities -- who have themselves made no statement on their president’s health -- have yet answered.

The Emirati leader’s team on Saturday evening released photos taken the same day showing Al Nahyan, known as MBZ, smiling and apparently in good health, with Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the emir of Qatar.