Alwaght- Israeli intelligence minister said on Sunday Bahrain and Oman could be the next Persian Gulf Arab states to follow the United Arab Emirates in formalizing ties with the occupying Israeli regime.
“In the wake of this agreement [with the UAE] will come additional agreements, both with more (Persian) Gulf countries and with Muslim countries in Africa,” Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen told Army Radio, Reuters reported.
“I think that Bahrain and Oman are definitely on the agenda. In addition, in my assessment, there is a chance that already in the coming year there will be a peace deal with additional countries in Africa, chief among them, Sudan,” he said.
Israeli regime and the UAE on Thursday reached the deal that will lead to a full normalization of diplomatic relations between the two sides, in an agreement that US President Donald Trump apparently helped broker.
Both Bahrain and Oman praised the UAE-Israel treacherous accord, although neither have commented on their own prospects for normalized relations.
A senior US official said on Friday that the White House has been in touch with “numerous” countries in the region, trying to see if more agreements would materialize.
The official declined to name the countries but said they were Arab and Muslim nations in the Middle East and Africa.
President of Iran, a heavyweight regional power, however condemned the UAE's "treacherous" deal with the Israeli regime as a “huge mistake.”
In his televised speech, Iranian President warned the UAE against allowing Israel a “foothold in the region”.
“They (the UAE) better be mindful. They have committed a huge mistake, a treacherous act. We hope they will realize this and abandon this wrong path,” Rouhani said.
Under the agreement, Israel has allegedly agreed to suspend applying its own rule to further areas in the occupied West Bank and the strategic Jordan Valley that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had pledged to annex.
President Rouhani said the deal seemed aimed at ensuring that Trump wins another term in the US presidential election in November and referred to the fact it was announced in Washington.
“Why then did it happen now? If it weren’t a wrong deal, why was it then announced in a third country, in America? So a gentleman in Washington wins votes, you betray your country, your people, Muslims and the Arab world?”
He added that the Emirates may also have thought that they could guarantee security by getting close to Iran’s enemies, but Iran had “historically been the protector of its neighbors and ensure of the security of the Persian Gulf.”