The foreign ministers of Israel and the United Arab Emirates visited the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin on Tuesday at their first historic meeting, a major milestone for their new relationship.
Gabi Ashkenazi and his counterpart in the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, hit their elbows in line with measures to prevent coronavirus.
It is their first face-to-face assembly since their countries set aside decades of enmity and signed an agreement negotiated across the United States in mid-September to normalize relations.
Accompanied by German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, Ashkenazi said the scale moved for him “as a representative (of Israel), as a former general and as the son of a Holocaust survivor. “
All three of us were silent in combination as we remember the victims. And for the first time in history, a representative of an Arab state provideArray. Our presence in combination today symbolizes a new era: peace, stability, prosperity and hope. . “
Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates were the first Arab countries to identify relations with Israel since Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994.
For the Middle East, the agreements called the Abrahamic Agreements mark a distinct replacement in the prestige quo where Arab countries have tried to maintain the unity opposed to Israel over their remedy to stateless Palestinians.
The Emirati minister at the Holocaust Memorial is also a very symbolic step, marking the Arab world’s attitude of conversion to Israel and the Jews.
Political conflicts have sparked violent tensions between Islam and Judaism, and Holocaust denial is endemic in many Arab countries.
– ‘Never again’ –
Along with Maas, the couple walked through the dark monument, a vast mountainous labyrinth of more than 2,700 blocks of grey concrete spread over a domain of 3 football fields.
It commemorates the blood bath of six million Jews through Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime.
Visibly relaxed, Ashkenazi and Sheikh Abdullah shared a few words while visiting the monument’s underground museum and signing the guest book.
Sheikh Abdullah wrote “never again” in his message, adding that the site “highlights the values of coexistence and forgiveness Array . . . on which my country was built. “
Ashkenazi looked forward to his message saying that the assembly “symbolizes the beginning of a new era. An era of peace among the peoples. “
“Our non-unusual signature in the eBook of Remembrance is like a shared cry and oath: and don’t forget, be strong and promise”never again. “
– ‘First News’ –
Maas called it “a great honor for Israeli and Emirati foreign ministers to choose Berlin as their first historic meeting. “
“The greatest vital currency of international relations is to accept as true and I am personally grateful to my two colleagues for marking that agreement as true in Germany. “
Following their talks at the withdrawal of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the ministers of the United Arab Emirates and Israel expressed their readiness to open cooperation in spaces such as technological progression and security.
Topics such as the creation of embassies or the construction of air connections were raised in the talks, Ashkenazi said.
Maas called the agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates “the first news in the Middle East in a long time. “
But he suggested that the parties pass the most and that the region take momentum to place lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
“This opportunity will have to be seized,” said Maas, whose country recently holds the EU presidency, and expressed the bloc’s willingness to help.
“The longer we delay the negotiations, the more we leave a more misleading truth for long-term generations. “
hmn / mfp / lc