Hamas: Friedman’s Annexation Remarks Expose Lies of Arab Leaders

Date: 30 September 2020 - 21:35

News ID: ۸۳۳۷۹

GAZA STRIP (Dispatches) – Palestinian resistance movement Hamas says U.S. envoy to the occupied territories David Friedman’s remarks that the Zionist regime’s plans to annex large swathes of the occupied West Bank have been "suspended not cancelled” exposes the lies of Arab regimes who have normalized ties with the Zionist regime.
In a statement Hamas spokesman, Abdel Latif Al-Qanoa, said: "Some Arab regimes manipulated Arab public opinion to normalize ties with the Israeli occupation.”
"The U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Freidman’s confirmation that Israeli annexation plans had been postponed exposes the lies told by some Arab regimes who sought to normalize ties with the Israeli occupation.”
"These remarks expose the false justifications of Arab states that signed normalization agreements with the Israeli occupation,” he added.
Friedman said the Zionist regime’s pledge to halt the annexation of the occupied West Bank under the recent treacherous deals with the UAE and Bahrain would not stop it going ahead in future.
"We said in our statement that sovereignty will be postponed, and this does not mean that it has been abolished, but rather that it has stopped. It has been suspended for a year, maybe more, but it has not been cancelled,” Friedman told Israeli Army Radio.
Friedman attended the signing of the controversial normalization deal between the Zionist regime, Bahrain and the UAE in Washington on 15 September.
Palestinians from across the political spectrum have condemned the deal as an act of betrayal of their struggle against occupation.
President Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian political leaders say the accords violate a longstanding pan-Arab position that the Zionist regime could normalize relations only in return for an end to the occupation.
The UAE had claimed that as part of the normalization deal it had obtained a major concession from the regime and the U.S. to halt plans to annex territory in the occupied West Bank.