WEST BANK (Dispatches) – The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has opened its embassy in the occupied territories, less than a year after the two sides agreed to formalize their relations under a deal mediated by the United States.
Palestinians, who seek an independent state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Al-Quds as its capital, view the deals as a betrayal of their cause.
A member of the Palestinian Fatah movement’s Central Committee has censured Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed (MBZ) as “a traitor” to the Palestinian cause, saying the United Arab Emirates must be expelled from the Arab League for normalizing ties with the Zionist regime.
Abbas Zaki said if the UAE’s doors are opened to “naturalize the Zionists, you will perish.”
“The people of the Emirates are free and great and we do not attribute this betrayal to them, because the only traitor is Mohammed bin Zayed,” Zaki stated.
The occupying regime opened its embassy in the Emirati capital late June. Zionist foreign minister Yair Lapid inaugurated the regime’s embassy in Abu Dhabi and the consulate in Dubai during a two-day visit.
The inauguration ceremony on Wednesday was hosted by UAE’s ‘ambassador’ to the occupied territories Mohammad al-Khaja, with the regime’s President Isaac Herzog in attendance.