TEHRAN – President Hassan Rouhani told his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday that Iran and Turkey should take a unified stance on a recent normalization deal between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel.

Speaking at the sixth meeting of the High-Level Cooperation Council between Iran and Turkey, Rouhani said: “The Emirates’ treacherous agreement with the Zionist regime is a threat to regional security and harms the world of Islam and the Palestinian cause, and since Iran and Turkey have common opinions on many issues of the world of Islam, they should make a unified decision in this regard and cooperate closely on the issues of the Muslim Ummah.”

On August 13, the UAE and Israel reached a deal to fully normalize their bilateral relations. Under the deal, officially known as the Abraham Accords, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed “agreed to the full normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates,” according to a joint statement issued by the U.S., Israel and the UAE. The two leaders have also “committed to the exchange of embassies and ambassadors, and to begin cooperation in a broad range of fields including education, healthcare, trade, and security,” the White House said in a statement on August 13.

Iran and Turkey denounced the deal as a “betrayal” to the Palestinian cause.

During the Tuesday meeting, President Erdogan dismissed the UAE-Israel deal as “betrayal.”

Referring to the agreement reached by some countries in the region with Israel, the Turkish president said, “These agreements are a clear betrayal to the World of Islam and are definitely against the interests of Muslim nations and we must all remain loyal to the Palestinian cause,” according to a statement issued by the Iranian presidential website on Tuesday.

SKM/PA