Iran on Monday criticized the United Arab Emirates for hosting Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on the first official visit to the Gulf nation by an Israeli premier, saying that it was betrayal of the Palestinians, The Times of Israel reports.
Ahead of the one-day visit, Bennett’s office said his talks with Abu Dhabi’s powerful Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and other Emirati officials would focus on the shared threat posed by Iran.
“The acceptance of the prime minister of the illegitimate regime, which is the cause of insecurity, tension and incitement to war in the Arab and Islamic countries for more than 70 years, will be recorded in the historical memory of the Palestinian people, the people of the region and all freedom fighters,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
Khatibzadeh emphasized Tehran’s opposition to any normalization of ties with Israel, and said that the struggle must continue for the liberation of Jerusalem.
“The occupying regime of Quds is the first enemy of the Islamic world and the Arab countries, and no action in the direction of normalization can achieve the lofty ideal of [a state of] Palestine,” he said, using the Arabic name for Jerusalem.
