UAE minister of state for foreign affairs fires back after PA official attacks UAE over agreement with Israel.
By Elad Benari , INN
Anwar Gargash
A senior United Arab Emirates official on Tuesday fired back at the Palestinian Arab ambassador to France after he attacked the UAE over its establishment of formal relations with Israel, Times of Israel reported.
The envoy, Salman El Herfi, blasted both the UAE and Bahrain in an interview with French magazine Le Point, saying, among other things, that these countries “have become more Israeli than Israel” and are violating the charter of the United Nations.
El Herfi charged that the UAE had long abandoned the Palestinian cause and that he wasn’t surprised by Abu Dhabi’s decision to normalize ties with Israel in August.
“The only new thing was the formalization of this relationship. I thank them for having revealed their true face,” he said, adding, “The truth is that the Emirates were never at the Palestinians’ side.”
Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, he continued, is merely “a little dictator who wants to become known, and he’s playing with fire.” He further charged that the UAE leader “surrendered to Israel without a fight.”
He also accused the UAE and Bahrain of violating a long list of Arab League and UN resolutions, even going as far as saying they violated the UN charter by normalizing relations with Israel.
Anwar Gargash, the UAE’s minister of state for foreign affairs, responded to the comments in a post on Twitter on Tuesday.
“I was not surprised by the statements made by the Palestinian Ambassador to Paris, and his ungrateful discussion of the Emirates,” Gargash wrote in Arabic.
“We have grown accustomed to the lack of loyalty and the ingratitude. We proceed toward the future confident in all our actions and beliefs,” he added.
PA officials have repeatedly blasted the Israel-UAE deal. PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas initially denounced the Israel-UAE deal and described it as “a stab in the Palestinians’ back”. He has also said that no peace would be achieved in the region by bypassing the Palestinian Arabs in favor of normalization of relationships between the Arab states and Israel.
Chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat warned that the Israel-UAE agreement would kill the two-state solution, strengthen “extremists” and undermine the “possibility of peace”.
Even before the agreement with Israel, Gargash on several occasions appeared to side with Israel.
In 2018, he said that Iran’s “aggressive policies” were “largely responsible” for the reimposition of US sanctions on Tehran.
He also recently criticized the Hezbollah terrorist organization after it fired multiple anti-tank missiles toward northern Israel.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.