TEHRAN – Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned in the strongest terms a U.S.-brokered deal between the Kingdom of Bahrain and Israel, saying the Palestinian people and Muslims around the world “will never accept” the normalization of ties with Israel.

“Undoubtedly, the oppressed and rightful people of Palestine, along with free Muslims around the world, will never accept the normalization of relations with the usurper and rogue regime of Israel. This disgraceful act will forever remain in the memory of the oppressed and suppressed nation of Palestine and the free nations of the world,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

The statement called the normalization deal between Tel Aviv and Manama a “disgraceful and humiliating act” that sacrifices the Palestinian cause and the sufferings of the Palestinian people on the altar of the U.S. presidential election.

On Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he brokered what he called “a historic deal” between Israel and Bahrain.

Under the deal, Israel and Bahrain have committed to begin the exchange of embassies and ambassadors, start direct flights, and launch cooperation initiatives across a broad range of sectors, according to a White House statement issued on September 11. The deal comes on the heels of another normalization agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, which was also announced by President Trump on August 13.

The normalization deals were met with strong opposition from regional countries as well as Arab public opinions. As Trump announced the Bahrain-Israel deal, many hashtags denouncing the normalization between Arab countries and Israel were trending on Twitter in the region, including in Bahrain, where Twitter users launched hashtags such as “Bahrainis against normalization” and “normalization is betrayal” in Arabic.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry said the government of Bahrain has sought refuge in the occupying regime of Israel instead of seeking legitimacy from its own people.

“From now on, the rulers of Bahrain will be complicit in the Zionist regime’s crimes as a perpetual source of threat to security in the region and Muslim world and as the root cause of violence, slaughter, war, terrorism and bloodshed in oppressed Palestine and the region,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s statement said. “Certainly, the result of this act of the Bahraini government will be only the growing anger and lasting hatred of the oppressed people of Palestine, the Muslims, and the free nations of the world.”

The statement also warned Bahrain against “any insecurity caused by Israel in the Persian Gulf”, saying that the government of Bahrain and other accompanying governments will bear the responsibility for the insecurity.

SM/PA