01-09-2020
TEHRAN/ DUBAI/ JERUSALEM: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has betrayed the Islamic world and the Palestinians by reaching a deal toward normalizing ties with Israel, Iran’s top authority Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said in a speech on Tuesday.
“Of course, the UAE’s betrayal will not last long, but this stigma will always be remembered. They allowed the Zionist regime to enter the region and forgot Palestine,” Khamenei said.
“The Emiratis will be disgraced forever for this treachery against the Islamic world, Arab nations and Palestine.”
Khamenei’s comments came as a delegation of senior Israeliband US officials, including White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, concluded a historic trip to Abu Dhabi to finalise the pact.
“The UAE along with Israelis and evil Americans like the Jewish member of Trump’s family are working together against the interests of the Islamic world,” Khamenei said, referring to Kushner.
“I hope Emiratis wake up and compensate for what they did.”
Iranian authorities have harshly criticized the US-brokered deal between the UAE and Tehran’s longtime foe Israel, with some officials warning that the UAE and Israel cozying up to one another risks conflagration in the Middle East.
Israel and the UAE expect economic benefits from the deal, he first such accommodation between an Arab country and Israel in more than 20 years, which was forged largely through shared fears of Iran. It has dismayed Palestinian leaders, however, who believe it further erodes their struggle for an independent state. (Int’l News Desk)