People tear a picture depicting Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, during a protest against the United Arab Emirates, in front of the Dome of the Rock, in Jerusalem’s Old City, Aug. 14, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Ammar Awad.

Iran and Turkey were virtually alone among Middle Eastern nations on Friday as both countries condemned of the historic peace agreement announced by Israel and the United Arab Emirates the day before.

In a furious statement published on the Iranian regime’s official mouthpiece IRNA, the Foreign Ministry in Tehran railed “that the oppressed nation of Palestine as well as other freedom-seeking peoples worldwide will never forgive the sin of normalization of the ties with the occupier and bloodthirsty regime of Israel and also the act of those who approve and cooperate with its crimes.”

The statement continued: “History will definitely demonstrate how this strategic mistake by the Zionist regime and the dagger which stabbed both the Palestinian nation and the Muslim peoples in the back will backfire and further strengthen the resistance axis by enhancing unity and solidarity against the Zionist regime and the backward governments in the region.”

In Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters that “the move against Palestine is not a step that can be stomached.”

Erdogan added that he was considering the withdrawal of Turkey’s ambassador to the UAE, but did not promise any stronger measures.

In a separate statement, meanwhile, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry charged that the UAE had no authority to negotiate with Israel on behalf of the Palestinians or “to make concessions on matters vital to Palestine.”

Several Turkish newspapers carried a statement from the Qatar-based International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) denouncing the Israel-UAE deal.

Characterizing the accord as “high treason,” the IUMS — the supreme authority of the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood supported by Erdogan, the Palestinian Hamas movement and other regional Islamists — urged the Muslim world to take a “decisive position against such concessions … and to exert efforts to preserve the full rights of the Palestinian people.”

The Palestinian Authority — led by President Mahmoud Abbas — castigated the UAE’s move as “a betrayal.”