UAE Forces Canadian Forces to Evacuate Military Base near Dubai

MacKay confirmed the report, saying the UAE followed through on its threat to deny the Canadian military access to Camp Mirage base near Dubai.

According to AFP, MacKay said on Monday, "At this point, we will abide by the wishes of the Emirates, and that is that we will be leaving the base".

The UAE's decision to close the base comes as a result of the failure of negotiations between Ottawa and the UAE to expand aviation relations between both countries.

Escalating diplomatic tensions between both sides reached a new level later in the day when the UAE closed its airspace to an aircraft carrying Mackay and Canadian Chief of the Defense Staff Gen. Walt Natynczyk on their way back from Afghanistan.

Canada has been secretly using Camp Mirage to support its operations in Afghanistan. The base was supposed to play an important role in the withdrawal of US-led troops from Kandahar following the expiry of their mission on July 2011.

"We are going through the various options that are before us right now, and we'll continue to do our mission here in Afghanistan primarily and we'll find other ways to support this mission through other hubs within the region," MacKay said.

According to Canadian media, Ottawa is planning to relocate its forces, probably to Cyprus instead of UAE, where its troops will have a remaining of 27 days to leave the base after negotiations with UAE faliled.

UAE is considered to be one of Canada's biggest economic partners in the Middle East, where about 27,000 Canadians live in the UAE.