Iran’s supreme leader urges reversal of Arab states’ normalization with Israel

Arab nations that normalized ties with Israel last year have “sinned” and should reverse those moves, Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei says.

The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco all said in 2020 they would normalize ties with Israel, as Washington under the administration of then-US president Donald Trump made Arab-Israeli rapprochement a foreign policy priority.

“Some governments have unfortunately made errors — have made big errors and have sinned in normalizing (their relations) with the usurping and oppressive Zionist regime,” Khamenei says, referring to Israel.

“It is an act against Islamic unity, they must return from this path and make up for this big mistake,” Khamenei adds, in a speech marking a public holiday honoring the birth of the Prophet Mohammed.

“If the unity of Muslims is achieved, the Palestinian question would definitely be resolved in the best fashion,” Khamenei says.

In May, Khamenei characterized Israel as a “terrorist base” and “not a country.”