RAMALLAH, Palestine

The Palestinian government on Monday said it cancelled its participation in the Dubai Expo scheduled to open in October 2021.

Following its weekly cabinet meeting, a statement on behalf of the government said that the move came "in rejection of the tripartite US-Israel-UAE declaration on the normalization of relations between Israeli occupation state and the United Arab Emirates."

The Dubai Expo was scheduled to open in October 2020, however, under the coronavirus outbreak, it has been delayed to October 2021 in which the UAE aims to attract around 11 million visitors.

Israel will be among the countries participating in the UAE’s important event.

The Palestinian Authority strongly condemned the UAE move to normalize relations with Israel.

* Ahmed Asmar contributed to this report from Ankara