UAE official says UAE-Israel accord not directed at Iran

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said on Monday the UAE's peace accord with Israel was a sovereign decision that was not directed at Iran.

"We say this and repeat it," Gargash wrote on Twitter. "We do not accept interference in our decisions."

The UAE on Sunday said it had summoned a senior diplomat from the Iranian embassy in Abu Dhabi and handed him a strong note of protest against the "threats contained in Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's speech regarding the UAE's sovereign decisions," according to the official WAM news agency.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday condemned the move of UAE to establish diplomatic ties with Israel as "a betrayal of the cause of the Palestinian nation," Iran's Tasnim news agency reported.

(CGTN)