Iran, Palestinians Enraged by Trump-Brokered Israel-Morocco Peace Deal

VIJETA UNIYAL DEC 12, 2020 2:00 PM

The Iranian regime and Palestinian terrorist groups have been enraged by the normalization of ties between Israel and Morocco. President Donald Trump announced the move on Thursday, making Morocco the fourth Arab country to recognize the Jewish State under the diplomatic framework established by his administration. “The agreement builds on one of his main foreign policy accomplishments, winning broader recognition of Israel in the Arab world under the rubric of the “Abraham Accords”,” Associated Press noted. Under the agreement, Morocco will establish full diplomatic relations with Israel, resume official contacts, and allow direct flights between the two countries. “Morocco’s normalisation of relations with Israel is a betrayal and a stab in the back of Palestine, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, an adviser to Iran’s parliamentary speaker,” Reuters news agency reported. Iran’s proxy terrorist militia, Hezbollah, joined Tehran in rejecting the movement towards peace between the Arab states and Israel. “We condemn the announcement by the Moroccan authorities about the normalization of relations with the Israeli enemy. This move is in the context of the successive fall of a number of Arab governments that, at the behest of the United States and the Zionist regime, have undermined the Palestinian ideals and want to destroy it,” said the Lebanon-based terrorist outfit in a statement, Iranian news agency Tasmin reported. The Iran-funded Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist group echoed the statement issued by the Mullahs in Tehran. “Normalization by Morocco with the ‘Israeli’ occupation is a betrayal of Jerusalem and of Palestine,” the Palestinian Islamic Jihad lamented. Gaza-based Islamic terrorist group Hamas, which also receives weapons and financial support from Tehran, was equally outraged at the prospect of peace between yet another Arab country and the State of Israel. “Hamas condemns the Moroccan-Zionist declaration of normalization of relations between them, in an odious move that is not befitting of Morocco,” Hamas complained. The development highlights Iran’s growing isolation in the Middle East. President Trump’s announcement was welcomed by several leading Arab states. The Times of Israel reported Arab leaders’ response:

Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates welcomed the announcement that Israel and Morocco are to establish full ties on Thursday, with all three countries predicting the development will contribute to regional stability.Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi became the first Arab leader to praise Morocco’s decision to establish diplomatic ties with Israel. Sissi was also the first to praise the Emirates’ decision to establish formal ties with the Jewish state.“I followed with great interest the important development regarding the agreement between Morocco and Israel to normalize relations between them with American mediation. If this step bears fruit, it would create further stability and cooperation in our region,” Sissi said in a statement.Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan tweeted in Arabic: “We welcome the United States ’declaration of recognition of the brotherly Morocco’s sovereignty over the Moroccan Sahara, and the decision of Rabat to resume contacts and diplomatic relations with the State of Israel … a sovereign step that contributes to strengthening our common quest for stability, prosperity, and just and lasting peace in the region.”

With Tuesday’s announcement, Morocco has joined the UAE, Bahrain, and Sudan in normalizing relations with Israel since President Trump unveiled the Abraham Accords four months ago. Prior to that, only two Arb states, Egypt and Jordan, had formally recognized the Jewish State. Morocco first established low-level diplomatic ties with Israel in the mid-1990s, but broke off the relations following the Second Palestinian Intifada of 2000, a campaign accompanied by widespread Palestinian rioting and waves of terrorist bombings against Israeli civilians. The Israel Hayom newspaper noted the significance of the agreement. “For 40 years, the US did not have one foreign policy achievement in the Middle East to speak of,” Israel’s most-read newspaper wrote. “Trump and Netanyahu have made history in the Middle East.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked President Trump for yet another diplomatic breakthrough in the Middle East. “I always believed in this peace, and now it’s happening before our eyes. I want to thank President Trump for his extraordinary efforts to expand peace to bring peace to Israel and the Middle East,” he said.

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