Palestine slams Arab normalisation deals with Israel

Ramallah: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has slammed the normalization agreements that some Arab countries have reached with Israel in recent times.

“The agreements to normalise relations recently signed by Israel with some Arab countries are an illusion that will not succeed,” Abbas said in an online address on Tuesday.

 The President added that peace and security “will only be achieved” at the end of the Israeli occupation, reports Xinhua news agency.

 Abbas also said that peace with Israel can only be achieved by “the recognition of the Palestinian people’s legitimate rights, mainly the rights of freedom, independence, and establishing a Palestinian state”.

“We agreed to sign painful historic peace agreements, recognized the state of Israel under the UN Resolutions 242 and 338, and signed the Oslo accords in 1993,” he said, adding that the Jewish state has violated these agreements.

 In September last year, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed separate normalisation agreements with Israel. Later, Morocco and Sudan followed in their footsteps.