UAE ambassador says 'whole of Saudi Arabia is cuckoo' in leaked email

Yousef Otaiba an influential player in world politics and has attended Pentagon strategy meetings

Yousef Al Otaiba, United Arab Emirates Ambassador to the United States (Getty)

The United Arab Emirate’s envoy to the US has reportedly ridiculed Saudi Arabia’s leadership in a number of leaked emails,

In one of the messages, reportedly stolen by hacking group GlobalLeaks, Yousef Otaiba wrote: “That whole country is fuckin coo coo!”

In another, sent to his Egyptian wife, Abeer Shoukry, the UAE ambassador mocked Saudi Arabia’s decision to ban red roses on Valentine’s Day.

In the email, purportedly written by Mr Otaiba, he wrote: “They’re just so stupid… I’m sure Red roses are now being sold on the black market for extortionately high prices. They should’v banned heart-shaped chocolate as well.”

The correspondence reveals that although Mr Otaiba believes the UAE has “bad history” with Saudi Arabia, their crown prince Mohammed bin Salman could lead to better relations and a time to get “the most results we can ever get out of Saudi.”

Previously, Mr Otaiba had written to New York Times columnist Tom Friedman, saying that “with MBS (Mohammed bin Salman), we see a genuine change. And that’s why we’re excited. We finally see hope there and we need it to succeed.”

In other emails, Mr Otaiba has hailed bin Salman as being “on a mission to make the Saudi government more efficient.”

The UAE ambassador is an influential player in world politics and has attended Pentagon strategy meetings.

“He is incredibly savvy,” a former White House aide told the Huffington Post.

“He throws great social events. He understands how Washington works, how the Hill works, which a lot of these countries don’t.”

The correspondence from Mr Otaiba’s email account was initially uncovered by the GlobalLeaks group, who approached Daily Beast. The hacking group claims to “reveal how million of dollars were used to hurt reputation of American allies and cause policy change.”

The UAE embassy confirmed that the Hotmail address matched the ambassador’s, according to The Hill.

The identity of GlobalLeaks remains unknown although the Daily Beast noted that the email sent to them was from a free Russian email provider.