The Islamic State condemns Israel’s normalization deals with United Arab Emirates and Bahrain

The Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist organization on Sunday condemned Israel’s normalization accords with the UAE and Bahrain and called for retaliatory attacks in Saudi Arabia, AFP reports.

ISIS spokesman Abu Hamza al-Quraishi, in a purported audio recording posted on Telegram, said the deals with the Jewish state signed last month amounted to a “betrayal” of Islam.

The spokesman urged IS fighters and other Muslims to carry out anti-Western attacks in Saudi Arabia, home to Islam’s holiest sites.

Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates are both allies of Saudi Arabia, which has not normalized ties with Israel but reportedly worked behind the scenes and urged the UAE and Bahrain to reach their respective deals with the Jewish state.

In the group’s last recording made public in January, the ISIS spokesman called for attacks on Jewish targets to counter US President Donald Trump’s peace proposals for the Middle East, which were presented several days later.

ISIS overran large swathes of Syria and neighboring Iraq in 2014, proclaiming a “caliphate” in land it controlled.

Since then, several military offensives, including those backed by the US-led international coalition, have since seen ISIS lose most areas it once controlled, including the loss of their de facto capital Raqqa in Syria.

However, despite losing the physical caliphate, thousands of ISIS fighters remain in Iraq and Syria, and the group continues to carry out terrorist attacks.

Source: INN