Al-Jazeera barred from Iranian UAE event

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, May 15 (UPI) -- The Arabic al-Jazeera television network was thrown out and prevented from covering a news conference by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Abu Dhabi.

Correspondent Mohammad Abdullah told Gulf News his crew was setting up at the Emirates Palace Hotel when the group was ordered to leave. He said the United Arab Emirates National Media Council had negotiated with the Iranian delegation to set up coverage, but the council director general Ibrahim Al Abed denied that.

"It was an Iranian event -- they chose which news (coverage) they had," Abed told ArabianBusiness.com. "There was no (official) UAE presence there."

Last week, al-Jazeera was banned from the Iranian parliament in Tehran after it broadcast a talk show Iran perceived as insulting to Iraq's Ayatollah Ali Sistani.