 | « Back to article | Print this article |
The Palestinian ambassador to the United Arab Emirates is being recalled, reports the official Palestinian news agency.
The move comes after the UAE and Israel announced a deal on Thursday to establish full diplomatic ties that would see Israel suspend its plans to annex parts of the West Bank.
The Palestinians have slammed the deal, calling it a 'betrayal' of the Palestinian cause and have demanded its retraction, spokesperson of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday.
'The Palestinian leadership rejects and denounces the surprising, trilateral, UAE, Israeli and US announcement,' Abbas' spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said in a statement.
Abu Rudeineh added that the Palestinian leadership equated the move to aggression against the Palestinian people.
'The Palestinian leadership considers the Emirati-Israeli normalization to destroy the Arab Peace Initiative and aggression against the Palestinian people,' Abu Rudeineh said.
Earlier in the day, Israel and the UAE agreed to normalise their relations, and an agreement on the mutual establishment of embassies is expected to follow in the coming weeks.
In exchange, Israel said it would halt its plans to formally annex parts of the West Bank.
-- with inputs from ANI