Corrections and clarifications: An earlier edition of this story has distorted the old fashion between the United Arab Emirates and Israel. This agreement is the first time that the United Arab Emirates has formalized its agreement with Israel.
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump announced Thursday that the United Arab Emirates and Israel agreed to formalize diplomatic relations, a historic agreement, and a rare foreign policy victory for the president in an election year.
As a component of the agreement, Israel agreed to temporarily suspend its questionable plan to annex parts of the West Bank, a land that Palestinians consider important to their long-term state hopes.
A group broadcast Thursday through the White House said israel and the United Arab Emirates “agreed to the complete normalization of relations” and that negotiators from both countries would meet in the coming weeks to signal a series of bilateral agreements on everything from investment. tourism to security.
The deal was made in a phone call Thursday between Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed, Abu Dhabi’s crown prince. But all countries formulated the pact in other words.
“It’s an icebreaker between those two countries,” said Jared Kushner, a senior adviser to Trump and the president’s son-in-law, in a rare appearance in the White House meeting room. Kushner said the agreement would allow flights from Abu Dhabi to Tel Aviv, which he said would “allow Muslims to come and Israel peacefully and come and pray at the mosque as often as they see fit.”
In a tweet, Netanyahu called it a “historic day,” but then said the annexation “is always on the table.” Bin Zayed, for his part, lobbied Israel’s agreement to “stop the continuation of Israeli annexation of the Palestinian territories” and seemed to downplay the broader agreement.
The leader of the United Arab Emirates said in a tweet that the two countries had agreed to “establish a roadmap for a bilateral relationship.”
The package said that with the suspension of Netanyahu’s annexation plan, Israel will “now focus its efforts on expanding ties with other countries in the Arab and Muslim world.”
Trump officials and other experts said the deal could usher in a broader rapprochement between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
“Israel’s broader acceptance in the region is smart for Israel and smart for America’s interests in the Middle East, and we expect other countries to follow,” he said Thursday at the Israeli Political Forum, an organization aimed at strengthening the United States for two state solutions. a statement.
The agreement makes the United Arab Emirates the third Arab country to have active diplomacy with Israel. The other two are Egypt and Jordan.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden welcomed Thursday’s announcement.
“The United Arab Emirates’ offer to publicly recognize the State of Israel is a welcome, courageous and indispensable act of state-mindedness,” Biden said in a statement.
Biden said the plan to annex Israel “would be a blow to the cause of peace” and said he strongly opposes it. “This would practically end any possibility of a two-state solution that would ensure Israel’s long term as a Jewish and democratic state and respect the Palestinians’ right to a state of their own.”
Tamara Cofman Wittes, principal investigator at the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, said there’s “only one reason” netanyahu would abandon her annexation proposal now: “Because she hopes she doesn’t have a president in favor of adnexion to DC soon, and she needs to maximize her profits,” she wrote in a tweet Thursday.
Kushner also said it will take “some time” for the agreements to be fully implemented. Israel “sees many interesting opportunities to do what is being done with other Arab and Muslim countries,” he added.
Osamah Khalil, a history professor at Syracuse University who specializes in Middle Eastern affairs, said he saw the announcement as a way to revive Trump and Netanyahu, anyone facing intense political winds against due to his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and other problems. .
“It’s no mystery that’s not happening well with the president” less than 90 days after the November 3 election, Khalil said. He noted that the agreement can help Trump consolidate his among evangelical Christians and major donors who see the United States for Israel as a very sensible priority.
But Netanyahu is the “big winner here,” he said, because it reinforces his argument that Israel can make territorial peace concessions to the Palestinians. He and others noted that under the Trump administration, Israel continued to expand settlements in the West Bank.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo argued that progression may simply bring To life Trump’s Middle East peace plan, which many consider dead upon his arrival.
“I hope the Palestinians see this for what is Array … a historic opportunity for the Middle East to be solid and peaceful,” Pompeo said, traveling with him to Europe.
Trump’s middle east peace plan passed a “two-state”: an independent Palestinian state throughout Israel. This has been a hallmark of Israeli-Palestinian peace projects for years, however, Trump’s commitment to this is an open question.
Trump’s proposal also necessarily gave the green tone to Netanyahu’s plan to annex up to 30% of the occupied West Bank, and sought to restrict Palestinians from expressing parts of East Jerusalem and leaving Israel alone guilty for the holy sites that are sacred to both sides.
Israel and the Arab Gulf countries have maintained quiet relations for years, according to Omar Rahman, a visiting scholar at the Brookings Doha Center, an expert group.
But Arab leaders have been reluctant to public their concern about alienating Palestinians and stoking the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he wrote in a 2019 investigation into relations between Israel and the Arab Gulf. A 2002 Arab peace initiative provided that Arab countries would normalize their relations with Israel in exchange for the return of the territory that Israel took in 1967, among other concessions.
Some of the agreement represented an “abandonment” of the Palestinians.
“While the normalization of relations between Israel and Arab states is itself desirable, this abandonment of the Palestinians will not serve the interests of peace or the genuine interests of Israel,” said Jerome Segal, president of the Jewish lobby of Peace.Array, a defense organization in Maryland. “Unfortunately, this will underscore the narrative of the Israeli right that any appearance of justice for the Palestinians can be ignored.”
Ian Bremmer, president and founder of Eurasia Group, a global research and advisory firm, said the agreement marked a “new geopolitics” in the region and warned that the Palestine consultation is no longer a precedent for the Gulf States.
It’s also “great news for Iran,” Bremmer said in a tweet.
Mark Dubowitz, an Iranian radical and director of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, agrees.
“The peace agreement between the United Arab Emirates and Israel is an ordinary advance that will bring even more opportunities for regional peace and prosperity in its wake. The mullahs in Iran are the only losers,” Dubowitz said.
He said the agreement means that Israel and the United Arab Emirates will deepen their cooperation in intelligence, security and the military, to the detriment of Iran.
“The agreement also paves the way for Bahrain, Oman and yet Saudi Arabia to deepen this cooperation and announce a stronger, non-violent Middle East,” he said. “The Iranian regime is weakened by peace and stability in other parts of the region. This means that the Islamic Republic will be less able to export its destabilizing revolution.”
Although deeply divided on the fate of the Palestinians, Israel and the Gulf States express their fear at Iran’s growing influence in the region.
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