Iran: Nothing normalized but Israeli crimes against Palestinians

Iran has once again slammed the United Arab Emirates for normalizing ties with the Israeli regime, regretting the only thing that has been normalized is the Tel Aviv regime’s continued acts of aggression against the Palestinians.

In a Twitter post on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif showed a picture portraying an Israeli soldier kneeling on a Palestinian’s head and said,” The only thing that has been ‘normalized’ is this.”

Zarif was referring to a Tuesday incident where Israeli forces brutally confront an elderly Palestinian man during a protest held nearthe occupied West Bank village of Shufah.

The protest came after the Palestinians gathered to protest against the confiscation of their land to expand settlements there.

Last month, Israel and the UAE announced an agreement to normalize relations, which has sparked protests and condemnations from Muslim and Arab countries as an act of treason against the Palestinian cause.  

In Iran, the Foreign Ministry vehemently condemned the deal as an instance of “strategic folly” that will only end up strengthening the regional resistance front.

“Undoubtedly, the agreement will result in fortification of the resistance front in the region,” the ministry said in a statement early on August 14.

“History will reveal how this strategic mistake by the Zionist regime and this act of backstabbing by the Emirates against the Palestinians and, by extension, the entire Muslim community, will conversely result in fortifying the resistance axis,” the ministry asserted.

Most recently, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said the United Arab Emirates has betrayed the entire Muslim world by normalizing ties with the Israeli regime, but that the betrayal will not last long.

The UAE betrayed the world of Islam, the Arab nations, the region’s countries, and the important cause of Palestine, Ayatollah Khamenei said in a meeting with directors at the Education Ministry via video conference on September 1.

“Of course, this situation will not last long, and the stain of shame will remain on the face of those who forgot the occupation of this country (Palestine) and the displacement of the Palestinian nation and allowed the Zionists into the region,” the Leader added.

The UAE is the third Muslim country to establish diplomatic relations with Israel after Egypt and Jordan.

Palestinians have been irked by the controversial Israel-UAE deal, with Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator saying, “This decision is at the expense of the legitimate Palestinian national rights.”

The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, has also condemned the Emirati recognition of Israel as a “cowardly” and “desperate attempt to influence the struggle to defeat the occupation and the fulfillment of the national rights.”