Published 18:01 IST, September 1st 2020
Iran's Khamenei says UAE-Israel deal 'betrayal' of Islamic world
Iran supreme leader Khamenei said UAE’s “stigma will always be remembered,” adding, the betrayal wouldn’t last long and Emiratis will be disgraced forever.
Iran’s top authority Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a statement on August 31, that the UAE-Israel deal was the ‘betrayal’ of the Islamic World and the Palestinians. Condemning the US-brokered agreement that normalizes UAE’s ties with Israel, Khamenei said that UAE’s “stigma will always be remembered,” adding, the betrayal wouldn’t last long. The Emiratis will be disgraced forever for complying with a Zionist regime, Khamenei said. UAE will be disgraced forever, he warned, asking the confederation to compensate for their actions.
In a press conference earlier, Iran’s supreme leader had called Israel a “cancerous tumour” that “will undoubtedly be uprooted and destroyed”. Furthering the threats against its Middle Eastern archenemy, the Iranian leader rebuked the Israeli regime in a 30-minute speech, voicing support for the Palestinians and accusing the US and the West of equipping Israel with “military and atomic weapons.” In his recent threats, renewing his bitter verbal attacks on Israel and accusing UAE of mending relations with Iran’s longtime foe, Khamenei said that he hopes UAE “wakes up”, and warned UAE-Israel-US delegation not to “cozy up” when risks of conflagration in the region loomed largely.
'Evil American Jewish member' of Trump family
Further, in his speech full of angst, Khamenei called the US President Donald Trump’s senior adviser Jared Kushner who boarded the El Al 971 commercial passenger plane that entered Saudi’s airspace for the first time as “evil American Jewish member of the Trump family”. The reader further accused the delegates of working “against the Islamic world”. UAE Foreign Ministry official Jamal Al-Musharakh in response to Iran’s statement on the UAE-Israel deal said, that the path for peace and prosperity wasn’t paved with incitement and hate speech, according to state media reports.
Earlier, on August 31, White House advisor Jared Kushner boarded flight 971 of Israel's national carrier El Al along with high-level Israeli and US delegations that took off in a historic journey to Abu Dhabi from Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv. In an address shortly prior to the plane’s takeoff, Kushner hailed the US-brokered Israel-UAE peace agreement, saying, “While this is a historic flight, we hope that it will start an even more historic journey in the Middle East and beyond.” Addressing the press alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the US National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien a day earlier, President Donald Trump's son-in-law called the start of UAE-Israel air travel as “a key step in what is expected to be full normalization between Israel and the UAE.”
Updated 18:01 IST, September 1st 2020