The statements underscored the delicate war Israel and the United States will face in the Gulf as they try to push for normalization without a peace agreement with the Palestinians in hand. Under the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, formulated through Saudi Arabia’s former King Abdullah, Arab states did not agree to identify ties with Israel until after an agreement reached with the Palestinians on the basis of the 1967 armistice lines.
Palestinians have condemned the agreement with the United Arab Emirates as a backshed through a leading Arab actor when they still have their own state.
Abu Dhabi defined its resolve to abandon the 2002 peace initiative and highlight a long-standing secret relationship with Israel, Jerusalem had agreed to finalize plans to annex large extensions of the West Bank as a component of the agreement.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that the annexation plans are on the table.
The agreement with the United Arab Emirates has generated high hopes that other countries will join it. Early Tuesday, Kushner, who is the weed of U. S. President Donald Trump and one of America’s leading israeli-Palestinian peace architects. plan, he told the UNITED Arab Emirates news firm that he was “100 percent” confident that the 22 members of the Arab League could fairly and gradually join the United Arab Emirates to normalize relations with Israel. resolution in the region.
Kushner predicted that the Arab country could soon identify diplomatic relations with Israel.
“I hope it’s been months,” he said when he was consulted about whether such a measure is predictable in months or years. He didn’t call the country.
Speculation in Israel has centered on Oman, which received Netanyahu in 2018, with Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco open to normalization with Israel.
Last month, the Moroccan prime minister told a party organization that he would not normalize relations with Israel, but then said he spoke in his non-public capacity.
During a stopover in Sudan last week, the government told Pompeo that ties with Israel can only be negotiated once the force is transferred to an elected framework of the existing transitional government.
On Monday, Kushner flew with an Israeli-American delegation from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi aboard an El Al plane, passing over Saudi airspace on a flight with symbolism.
During the visit, the countries’ national security advisers, Meir Ben-Shabbat of Israel and Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed of the United Arab Emirates, joined Kushner in discussing cooperation between the two highly evolved economies of the Middle East.
Negotiations focused on cooperation in the investment, finance, health, area exploration, civil aviation, foreign policy and tourism and culture regions.
A security delegation to the United Arab Emirates is expected in the coming weeks, however, it has reportedly been delayed due to persistent tensions over Israel’s opposition to US plans to sell ultra-advanced F-35 fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates. jets would erode their military merit in the region, which the United States has pledged to respect.
But in a sign that normalization is still advancing, Israel and the United Arab Emirates signed their first banking and monetary protocol on Tuesday, according to Netanyahu’s office.
“We will soon announce more agreements in aviation, tourism, industry and others,” the prime minister said in a statement.
Israel also said that the two sides held their first assembly on Tuesday on “the option of mutual embassy opening” and that direct advertising flights between the Jewish state and the United Arab Emirates are likely to take off until the end of the year.
“It wouldn’t be surprising if there would be direct flights between Israel and the United Arab Emirates until the end of 2020,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat told Al-Arabiya, a Saudi broadcaster.