Fri 14 August 2020:
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced to reporters in Istanbul today that Turkey will be considering closing its embassy in Abu Dhabi and suspending diplomatic ties with the UAE over its accord to normalise ties with Israel, according to Hurriyet Daily News.
This came after Turkey’s foreign ministry said in a statement that the Palestinians’ strong negative response to the deal was justified.
“History and the conscience of the region’s peoples will not forget and never forgive this hypocritical behaviour of the UAE, betraying the Palestinian cause for the sake of its narrow interests,” it said in a statement.
The UAE administration “has no authority to negotiate with Israel on behalf of Palestine without consent from its people and administration regarding vital matters.”
The ministry added, “It is extremely worrying that the UAE should, with a unilateral action, try and do away with the [2002] Arab Peace Plan developed by the Arab League. It is not in the slightest credible that this three-way declaration should be presented as supporting the Palestinian cause.”
The UAE is the first Gulf Arab state and the third Arab nation – after Egypt and Jordan – to announce active ties with Israel on Thursday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed “a new era” between Israel and the Arab world following the deal with the UAE.
