Israel and UAE Peace Deal Delight World Leaders and Angers Palestinians

"The decision taken within this framework by the Israeli authorities to suspend the annexation of Palestinian territories is a positive step, which must become a definitive measure," French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said.

Meanwhile, non-Arab Iran and Turkey, both supporters of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group which controls the Gaza Strip, lashed out at the UAE's "betrayal".

"While betraying the Palestinian cause to serve its narrow interests, the UAE is trying to present this as a kind of act of self-sacrifice for Palestine," the Turkish foreign ministry said.

The Iranian foreign ministry said Palestinians would "never forgive the normalizing of relations with the criminal Israeli occupation regime".

The deal marks a major foreign policy achievement for Trump as he heads into a difficult campaign for re-election in November.

His presumptive Democratic challenger for the presidency Joe Biden welcomed the "historic" agreement and called the UAE's move a "badly-needed act of statesmanship". 

(Writers & Editors: BURS-GW/KIR/PAR, Agence France-Presse) 

Source: http://u.afp.com/32Ca