Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei went on Twitter this week to launch a verbal tirade against the historic accord reached between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel to establish diplomatic ties.
Castigating the move as a “betrayal of the Islamic world and the Palestinians”, Ali Khamenei resorted to vivid rhetoric, claiming that the UAE was working in cahoots with “filthy Zionist agents”.
In mid-August, Israel and UAE struck a US-mediated accord to establish full diplomatic ties as part of earlier conceived plans between the two countries to normalize relations.
After the deal was signed, UAE President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan issued a decree on abolishing the economic boycott of Israel and related penalties, thus allowing financial and commercial deals to be struck.
The deal makes the UAE the third Arab country to have open diplomatic ties to the country after Egypt in 1979, and Jordan in 1994.
The Palestinian Authority condemned the deal as an act of betrayal which they claim infringes on the long-term unofficial rule that there could be no diplomatic ties between Israel and Arab states without significant advancement in talks with the Palestinians.