United Arab Emirates leaders should expect punishment for normalizing relations with Israel, according to Iranian officials seething over the breakthrough accord.
“The UAE government and other accompanying governments must accept responsibility for all the consequences of this action,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said Friday in a statement carried by state-run and regional media.
UAE officials justified the historic agreement by emphasizing that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to suspend plans to annex territory regarded by many observers as essential for a future Palestinian state. Palestinian leaders rejected the deal as “a betrayal” of their cause, which Iranian leaders also argued.
“W/ that strategic mistake, #UAE will be engulfed in Zionism fire,” Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, a foreign policy adviser to the speaker of Iran’s parliament, tweeted late Thursday.
President Trump unveiled a joint statement by Israeli and UAE leaders revealing that the two Middle Eastern countries plan to sign a series of agreements regarding “investment, tourism, direct flights, security, telecommunications, technology, energy, healthcare, culture, [and] the environment,” in addition to the establishment of embassy contacts, a watershed diplomatic moment that drew surprised applause from across the political spectrum.
“It will contribute toward stability in the region and advance the cause of peace,” House Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel, a New York Democrat, said Thursday. “I hope that this new breakthrough will give courage to other countries to move forward toward normalization and motivate Palestinians to give peace a chance.”
The agreement brings Israel into closer relations with one of the leading Persian Gulf Arab nations, an embrace motivated in no small part by their agreement about the threat posed by Iran and the proxy terrorist groups funded by Tehran. A senior Emirati official emphasized that the deal will include “strategic cooperation” between the two regional powers.
“The UAE and Israel also will join with the United States to establish a Strategic Agenda for the Middle East to deepen diplomatic, commercial, and security cooperation together and with other countries committed to peace and noninterference,” said Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba, the UAE envoy to the United States. “UAE initiatives to encourage regional dialogue and engagement will be intensified.”
