Israeli foreign minister says ‘they’re here to stay’
Yair Lapid who is on two-day official visit of UAE while inaugurating embassy in Abu Dhabi has said that they are not anywhere, and therefore, they want peace with its neighbours, with all neighbors calling the regional countries for talks.
Abu Dhabi: (UrduPoint/Pakistan Point News-June 30th, 2021) Israel’s new foreign minister Yair Lapid said that they were here to stay.
He made this statement while inaugurating embassy in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). He is the first cabinet member who is on two-day official visit of the UAE after both countries established their ties last year.
The Foreign Minister will inaugurate consulate in Dubai on Wednesday (today).
The trip will pave the way for Naftali Bennett government to mend diplomatic ties despite long-stymied talks with the Palestinians.
“Israel wants peace with its neighbours—with all its neighbours, because we are not going anywhere,” said Yair Lapid during ribbon-cutting ceremony at Abu Dhabi high-rise office.
“We aren’t going anywhere. We, therefore, call all the countries of the region to recognize that and to come to talk to us,” he further said.
The UAE and Bahrain normalised their ties with Israel last year under so-called "Abraham Accords" that was introduced by the administration of then US-President Donald Trump. Sudan and Morocco had since also moved to establish ties with Israel.
According to state news agency WAM said that Lapid and his Emirati counterpart Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan discussed building on the accords to achieve peace and strengthen security in the region.
They signed an agreement for economic and commercial cooperation, which an Israeli spokesman had earlier said would be the 12th since last year's move to forge ties.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, welcoming Lapid's visit, said Washington "will continue to work with Israel and the UAE as we strengthen all aspects of our partnerships and work to create a more peaceful, secure, and prosperous future for all the peoples of the middle East”, the State Department said.
However, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed the accords calling it “an illusion” and asserted that colonial powers had "implant(ed) Israel as a foreign body in this region in order to fragment it and keep it weak,” according to a report on Tuesday by the official Palestinian news service WAFA.
Lapid's plane transited through Saudi airspace. Riyadh, although not having normalised ties with Israel, last year opened its skies to Israel-UAE flights.
Lapid will on Wednesday visit the site of Expo 2020 Dubai, a world fair opening in October where Israel built a pavilion. The UAE formally opened its embassy in Israel, temporarily located in the Tel Aviv stock exchange, this month.
Israel's Abu Dhabi embassy still has only three diplomats and a head of mission, Eitan Na'eh, yet to be confirmed as full ambassador. Its Dubai consulate was similarly located in temporary premises.
Lapid was conciliatory toward former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu whose attempts to organise a trip to the UAE while in office were scotched by COVID-19 restrictions and who had sought to cast his ouster by Bennett as illegitimate.
Thanking Netanyahu as “the architect of the Abraham Accords”, Lapid said: "This moment is his, no less than it is ours,”.