Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour has been criticized by the British government for recently meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
On his first trip to the UAE since the Syrian civil war began 11 years ago, Assad met last week with several influential figures.
Among other things, he was photographed with Sheikh Mansour, the current Deputy Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates.
A British Foreign Office spokesman said such meetings "undermine the chances" for peace in Syria.
Assad's trip to the Emirates marks a certain warming in Syria's relations with its neighbors from Arab countries, which in the past isolated the Syrian president.
Recently the rulers of the UAE signaled a willingness to once again strengthen ties with Syria.
In a statement posted on the Athletics website, the British Foreign Office responded to Mansour-Assad's meeting:
Sheikh Mansour and Assad at their meeting in Abu Dhabi, Photo: AFP
Labor MP Chris Bryant, chairman of the parliamentary group of all parties on Russia, also expressed a similar concern to that of the State Department. In an interview with the Telegraph on Saturday, he said: "What do people not understand?
There is a barbaric and ongoing murder in Syria, under the joint management of Assad, and now Putin is doing exactly the same thing in a barbaric war of aggression against innocent sovereign Ukraine.
And there are people who want to meet these thugs? "Bryant also wondered if Sheikh Mansour is" a suitable and worthy person to own a football club. "
Bryant recently leveled similar accusations against Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, before imposing sanctions that prompted him to announce his intention to sell Chelsea.
The British media have asked for Manchester City's response, but it has not yet been received.
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