Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Ankara was considering closing its embassy in Abu Dhabi and suspending diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates over its agreement to normalize ties with Israel. "The move against Palestine is not a step that can be stomached. Now, Palestine is either closing or withdrawing its embassy. The same thing is valid for us now," Erdogan said," adding he gave orders to his foreign minister. "I told him we may also take a step in the direction of suspending diplomatic ties with the Abu Dhabi leadership or pulling back our ambassador," he said. The remarks made by Erdogan sound hypocritical as his country was the first Muslim majority nation to have formalized ties with Israel dating back to 1949. Meanwhile, the UAE will be the third Arab country to establish full relations with Israel, after Egypt did in 1979 and Jordan in 1994. Earlier in the day, the Turkish foreign ministry said history would never forgive the UAE's move in agreeing such a deal, which recasts the order of Middle East politics. The ministry said: "History and the conscience of the region's peoples will not forget and never forgive this behavior," it said. "It is extremely worrying that the UAE should, with unilateral action, try and do away with the (2002) Arab Peace Plan developed by the Arab League." In the deal announced on Thursday by the US, Israel pledged to suspend its planned annexation of Palestinian lands in exchange for a normalization of ties with the UAE. — Agencies
