Tehran calls the move an act of 'strategic stupidity from Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv that will strengthen the resistance'. I...
Tehran calls the move
an act of 'strategic stupidity from Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv that will strengthen
the resistance'.
Iran has condemned a deal establishing full diplomatic
relations between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel, calling it a stab
in the back to all Muslims.
Tehran, in the foreign ministry statement on Friday, called
the normalising of ties between the two countries a dangerous,
"shameful" measure and warned the UAE against Israel interfering in
the "political equations" of the Gulf region.
"The UAE government and other accompanying governments
must accept responsibility for all the consequences of this action," the
statement said.
The move was an act of "strategic stupidity from Abu
Dhabi and Tel Aviv that will undoubtedly strengthen the resistance axis in the
region", it added.
"The oppressed people of Palestine and all the free
nations of the world will never forgive the normalising of relations with the
criminal Israeli occupation regime and the complicity in its crimes."
'Daggar in the back'
In a deal brokered by the US, the UAE and Israel announced
on Thursday they agreed to establish full diplomatic ties and Israel will delay
plans for annexation of occupied land sought by the Palestinians for their
future state.
The agreement makes the UAE the first Gulf Arab state - and
the third Arab country after Egypt and Jordan - to have full diplomatic ties
with Israel. They announced it in a joint statement, saying deals between
Israel and the UAE were expected in the coming weeks in such areas as tourism,
direct flights and embassies.
The ministry statement called the deal a "dagger that
was unjustly struck by the UAE in the backs of the Palestinian people and all
Muslims".
The agreement delivered a key foreign policy victory for US
President Donald Trump as he seeks re-election and reflected a changing Middle
East, in which shared concerns about Iran have largely overtaken traditional
Arab support for the Palestinians.
The deal amounts to "treason" and should be
reversed, said Hossein Amirabdollahian, an adviser to Iran's parliament
speaker.
"UAE's new approach for normalising ties w/fake,
criminal #Israel doesn't maintain peace & security but serves ongoing
Zionists' crimes," he tweeted on Friday.
Iran's former chief of the powerful Revolutionary Guard,
Mohsen Rezaei, said on Twitter the UAE has been making itself "the
paradise of Israel" for the last 10 years.
"No Muslim zealous warriors and no Arabs betray
Palestine, only nerveless stabs from behind," he said.
Rezaei accused the UAE of working with Israel's spy agency
Mossad to create "espionage and intelligence networks" in the region.
UAE officials said they hope the newly signed deal will
"change the dynamics" towards Israel's annexation of Palestinian
lands but stressed it will be a long process.
"I don't think anything is written in stone," said
UAE official Omar Ghobash. "Even treaties and agreements written into the
law don't necessarily stand the test of time, again we are opening a door, we
are hoping that the Israelis will see the benefits to this step and the many
other steps that could follow from regional countries."
'Glass palaces'
In a veiled reference to its main regional rival and Emirati
ally Saudi Arabia, Iran's foreign ministry slammed rulers who harm the people
of Palestine and Yemen "from their glass palaces".
The agreement comes after Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad
Javad Zarif held rare talks with his Emirati counterpart last week, raising
hopes for a mending of their ties.
The UAE had downgraded its relations with Iran in January
2016 amid a spike in tensions between Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic.
Relations between Tehran and Riyadh deteriorated further
last year following a series of mysterious attacks on tankers in sensitive Gulf
waters, which Washington blamed on Iran. Tehran denied the charges.
Saudi Arabia and Iran, the region's two leading powers, back
opposing sides in several conflicts, including in Syria and Yemen.
Game-changer?
Establishing diplomatic ties between Israel and Washington's
Middle East allies, including the oil-rich Gulf states, has been central to US
President Donald Trump's regional strategy to contain Iran.
Ellie Geranmayeh, analyst at the European Council on Foreign
Relations, argued on Twitter the normalisation is unlikely to be a
"game-changer" for Iran.
She noted the Islamic Republic has long worked the
assumption that Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Israel have been covertly
cooperating against it for years.
The spokesman for Iran's Guardian Council, Abbas Ali
Kadkhodaee, tweeted the move meant Israel was "occupying the UAE".
In an editorial published on Friday, Iran's state news
agency IRNA dismissed the agreement as neither strategic nor historic - simply
a manoeuvre by Trump to boost his re-election hopes.
"This measure by Trump's team is neither a step to
solve regional problems and support the UAE, nor does it help Palestinians or
Netanyahu," it said.
Saying many of Iran's Arab neighbours already have ties with
Israel, it noted the agreement will not have much impact "aside from
infamy for regional states and domestic use for Trump".
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