Iran denounces Israel-UAE deal as 'strategic stupidity'

TEHRAN (Reuters/AFP) - Iran denounced the normalisation of ties between its Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as strategic stupidity on Friday, warning both countries that it will give rise to more resistance in the region. The move was an act of "strategic stupidity from Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv which will undoubtedly strengthen the resistance axis in the region," the foreign ministry said in a statement. "The oppressed people of Palestine and all the free nations of the world will never forgive the normalising of relations with the criminal Israeli occupation regime and the complicity in its crimes." In a major breakthrough in relations between the two Middle Eastern nations, Israel and the United Arab Emirates reached a peace agreement on Thursday. The deal, brokered by US President Donald Trump, will lead to full normalisation of diplomatic relations between the two nations, a move that reshapes the order of Middle East politics from the Palestinian issue to Iran. Under the accord, Israel has agreed to suspend annexing areas of the occupied West Bank as it had been planning to do, White House officials said. It also firms up opposition to regional power Iran, which the UAE, Israel and the United States view as the main threat in the conflict-riven region. Israel had signed peace agreements with Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994. But the UAE, along with most other Arab nations, did not recognise Israel and had no formal diplomatic or economic relations with it until now. The agreement was the product of lengthy discussions between Israel, the UAE, and the United States that accelerated recently, White House officials said.