The carefully choreographed world of Gulf diplomacy was thrown into disarray over the weekend when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan abruptly postponed a planned visit to Abu Dhabi, citing an unspecified "health problem" affecting UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, widely known as MBZ. The announcement, posted briefly on Erdogan's official X account on Sunday, February 15, was swiftly deleted, setting off a firestorm of speculation and unverified claims across international media and social platforms. The incident, which also saw Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis similarly defer a visit to Abu Dhabi, has raised profound questions about the health of one of the Middle East's most consequential leaders and the stability of the power structure in the United Arab Emirates.
The sequence of events began when Erdogan's communications directorate published a three-paragraph message on X, stating that the Turkish leader had spoken by phone with MBZ. "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," the now-deleted post read, according to a screen grab preserved by Agence France-Presse. The message further indicated that Erdogan's visit to Abu Dhabi would be rescheduled for a later, undetermined date. Turkish state media initially carried the report, but within hours, both the original post and the subsequent news articles were removed from official channels. A revised statement from the Turkish presidency simply noted that the two leaders had agreed to postpone the meeting, offering no explanation for the cancellation.
The official Emirati news agency, WAM, reported on the telephone conversation between the two leaders but made no mention of any health concerns or the postponement of Erdogan's visit . When contacted by AFP, neither the Turkish presidency nor Emirati authorities provided any clarification, and the UAE government has issued no official statement regarding the health of its 64-year-old president. This wall of silence from Abu Dhabi, combined with the deletion of the Turkish announcement, created a vacuum rapidly filled by speculation.
Adding to the intrigue, reports emerged that Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis had similarly deferred a planned visit to Abu Dhabi just days earlier, on Friday, February 13. While Mitsotakis's office officially cited domestic scheduling conflicts as the reason, the proximity of the two cancellations fueled suspicions of a coordinated diplomatic pullback linked to MBZ's undisclosed condition. The Greek prime minister did hold a phone call with the UAE leader, during which they discussed strengthening bilateral ties and agreed to meet at a later date, according to a readout from the Greek prime minister's office that, like WAM's report, omitted any reference to health issues. The consecutive nature of these high-level postponements was unprecedented and invited intense scrutiny.
The information void was quickly exploited by social media, where unverified claims proliferated with alarming speed. Some accounts, citing anonymous sources, alleged that MBZ had suffered a life-threatening medical emergency, with one prominent rumor claiming he had experienced a blood clot in the brain. More dramatically, conspiracy theories emerged suggesting a political dimension to the sudden disappearance from the public schedule. One widely circulated X post by user Fahad Munawwar speculated, "the UAE Game of Thrones has begun," positing that MBZ might have been "removed, overthrown, or perhaps even eliminated by his brother Tahnoun bin Zayed, who is said to have Saudi backing". The post drew parallels to the long public absence of former UAE president Khalifa bin Zayed, whose death in 2022 was announced years after he effectively vanished from public view, with his brother Mohammed ruling behind the scenes . These theories, while lacking any corroborating evidence from official sources, underscored the deep anxieties about succession and stability in the UAE's opaque political system.
In a move seemingly designed to counter the swirling rumors, the Emirati leader's team released photographs on Saturday evening, just hours before the Turkish announcement was made public. The images depicted MBZ smiling and appearing in good health alongside Qatar's Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, with the photos reportedly taken that same day. The visual evidence presented a stark contrast to the Turkish narrative of a leader too unwell to host a foreign dignitary. However, the photographs did little to quell speculation. UAE officials, speaking to Al Bawaba on condition of anonymity, described the condition as "non-life-threatening but requiring rest," a rare if still vague concession that something was indeed amiss. The admission that rest was required lent credence to the idea that Erdogan's original, now-deleted statement contained a kernel of truth, even as the official machinery worked to erase it.