Egypt and Bahrain welcomed the agreement to normalize relations between the UAE and Israel, which was announced today, Thursday, while the Palestinian presidency called the Arab League to convene, describing this normalization as a betrayal. Also condemned reactions continued in more than one Arab capital.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi tweeted, "I followed with great interest and appreciation the tripartite joint statement on the agreement to stop Israel's annexation of the Palestinian territories." And he considered that they are steps "that would bring about peace in the Middle East."

Sisi's tweet came after US President Donald Trump surprisingly announced, via Twitter, a "historic" agreement between the UAE and Israel on the normalization of relations.

Bahrain also expressed its congratulations to the UAE and its "wise" leadership for the agreement and for taking steps to enhance the chances of reaching peace in the Middle East.

"The Kingdom praises the sincere diplomatic efforts made by the UAE, stressing that this historic step will contribute to strengthening stability and peace in the region," said a statement carried by its official news agency.

# Urgent
For the first time in the history of the State of Israel, the Tel Aviv municipality building was lit up with the colors of the Emirati flag, and this is on the occasion of the normalization agreement between Israel and the UAE.
Congratulations 🇦🇪🤝🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/740SUobiJl

- Guy Maayan (@guy_telaviv) August 13, 2020

In the first official reaction, the Palestinian leadership affirmed its "rejection and denunciation" of the agreement, considering it a "betrayal of Jerusalem," and called for a meeting of the Arab League, and summoned its ambassador to the UAE.

The spokesman for the presidency, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, confirmed in a statement read on state television that the agreement "torpedoed the Arab peace initiative," which is "a betrayal of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa and the decisions of the Arab and Islamic summits and international legitimacy and aggression against the Palestinian people."

The Palestinian leadership also called on the international community to adhere to international law and international legitimacy decisions that form the basis for resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, believing that peace can only be achieved with the complete end to the Israeli occupation.

The Palestinian Resistance Committees said that the agreement reveals the size of the conspiracy against the Palestinian people, considering it a treacherous and poisonous stab in the back of the nation.

The Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, also affirmed that the agreement does not serve the Palestinian cause and encourages the occupation to deny the rights of the Palestinian people.

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said that the agreement with the occupation does not serve the Palestinian cause and encourages the occupation to deny the rights of the Palestinian people, and the continuation of its crimes against it.

He stressed that the real confrontation of annexation is through comprehensive resistance and Arab support for it and not by bartering it with agreements of this kind, considering that what was required was always support for the legitimate struggle of the Palestinian people to achieve its goals of freedom and not to establish relations with the occupation.

In turn, the leader of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah), Abbas Zaki, said that the agreement is "the UAE’s abandonment of the national, religious and humanitarian duty towards the Palestinian cause."

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine also denounced the agreement, saying it was a new stab in the side of the Palestinian people and their national cause.

For its part, the Islamic Jihad Movement said that the agreement represents a moral and strategic downfall of the Emirati policy that denies the Arab national consensus and betrays the nation's fundamentals.

And the movement considered in a statement that the attempt to justify this agreement is a pure misleading and disregard that does not deceive anyone, calling on the living forces in the Arab and Islamic world, parliaments and peoples to raise their voice in rejecting this agreement, which it described as humiliating.

Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said that Israel was rewarded for not disclosing what it had done illegally in Palestine since the beginning of the occupation.

For his part, the head of the National Initiative, Mustafa Barghouti, said that "the Emirati-Israeli normalization agreement is an implementation of the liquidation deal of the century and a stab in the back of the Palestinian people."

In Jordan, the Islamic Action Front said that the agreement constitutes a stab at the Palestinian cause and a betrayal of the positions of the Arab peoples who reject all forms of normalization with the Israeli enemy.

In a statement, the party expressed its rejection of all the justifications provided by the Emirati leadership for taking this step, which it described as ominous, pointing out that what Abu Dhabi took represents a black day in the history of the Arab peoples.

For his part, Jordanian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriate Affairs Ayman Safadi affirmed that Israel must choose between a just peace or the continuation of the conflict whose violations of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people deepen.

# Al-Hadrami: Our position in the Republic of Yemen will remain constant and will not change towards the Palestinian cause and the rights of the brotherly Palestinian people - which are inalienable - on top of which is the establishment of an independent state with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital. The Yemeni people will remain supportive of the brotherly Palestinian people and their right to their land and state, and we will not turn away.

- The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Yemen (@yemen_mofa) August 13, 2020

In Yemen, the Yemeni Minister of Foreign Affairs, Muhammad Al-Hadrami, said, "The position of the Republic of Yemen will remain constant and will not change towards the Palestinian issue and the rights of the brotherly Palestinian people - inalienable - on top of which is the establishment of an independent state with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital."

For his part, Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdul Salam said, "We express our strong condemnation of the Zionist-Emirati agreement and consider it a provocative step," adding, "This step transferred what was secretly into the open and proves that the Zionist and American enemy continues to destroy the region."