Turkey, Iran say Israeli-UAE deal 'shameful,' harmful to Palestinians

Aug. 14 (UPI) -- NATO ally Turkey and U.S. foe Iran on Friday denounced the normalization of ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, both saying the Persian Gulf state has abandoned Palestinians in their fight for a homeland.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced a deal to thaw relations between the two nations on Thursday. As part of the agreement, Israel agreed to suspend controversial and widely condemned plans to annex parts of West Bank.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had promised the annexation against the wishes of the Palestinians and much of the West. The annexation was also part of Trump's Middle East peace plan.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran considers this 'shameful' action of Abu Dhabi in normalizing ties with the fake, anti-human and illegitimate Zionist regime a dangerous action and warns about any interference of the Zionist regime in equations of the Persian Gulf region and announces that the government of the Emirates and other accompanying governments must admit responsibility for consequences of this action," Iran's foreign ministry said.

Turkey said the UAE was in pursuit of "secret ambitions" and accused the Arab nation of ignoring the "willpower of Palestine."

"Neither history nor the collective conscience of the region will ever forget and forgive the hypocritical behavior of the UAE, which is trying to depict the deal as a sacrifice for Palestine when in reality it is a betrayal to the Palestinian cause for its own narrow interests," Ankara's foreign ministry said.

The Palestinian Authority indicated it had no previous knowledge about the deal.

"The Palestinian leadership rejects and denounces the UAE, Israeli and [United States] trilateral, surprising, announcement," Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas, said, adding that the agreement betrays Palestinians.