History will show no mercy to the Arab nations that recognise Israel, Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, has told Middle East Eye.
Asked about the recent “normalisation” pacts agreed with Israel by the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, Haniyeh said that any deal an Arab country makes with Israel will eventually threaten that country.
“We know Israeli leaders better than them. We know how they think. We would like to tell our brothers in the United Arab Emirates that they will lose as a result of those agreements because Israel’s only interest is to seek a military and economic foothold in areas close to Iran,” Haniyeh said.
“They will use your country as a doorstep. We don’t want to see the UAE being used as an Israeli launchpad.”
Haniyeh described the Emiratis as “brothers” who had supported the Palestinian cause historically and said Hamas looked forward to the day when they dissociated themselves from the agreement.❐
