The Trump administration brokered a peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that puts on hold explosive plans to annex Palestinian lands and could lead to rapprochement with other Gulf monarchies, starting with Bahrain and Oman
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th August, 2020) The Trump administration brokered a peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that puts on hold explosive plans to annex Palestinian lands and could lead to rapprochement with other Gulf monarchies, starting with Bahrain and Oman.
The statement from the White House said that US President Donald Trump, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE, spoke on Thursday and agreed to the full normalization of relations between the two Middle East states.
"This historic diplomatic breakthrough will advance peace in the Middle East region and is a testament to the bold diplomacy and vision of the three leaders and the courage of the United Arab Emirates and Israel to chart a new path that will unlock the great potential in the region," the statement said.
For Israel it will be the third peace deal with its regional neighbors after accords with Egypt and Jordan signed in 1979 and 1994 respectively. There was also a relatively short-lived and now defunct peace with Mauritania and interim agreements with the Palestinians.
The Israeli-UAE deal is dubbed "The Abraham Accord" after the common patriarch of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
"I wanted it to be called The Donald J. Trump Accord, but I didn't think the press would understand that," the US president said.
"If you count Mauritania, then this is the fourth agreement and just the third without Mauritania, which was a brief episode after all. In 72 years," Israeli political analyst and former opposition lawmaker Ksenia Svetlova told Sputnik. "This shows that Israel is gradually becoming an integral part of this region in the eyes of its neighbors as well."
Both countries will exchange embassies and ambassadors. They are expected to sign a package of bilateral agreements regarding investment, tourism, security, telecommunications, technology, energy, healthcare, culture, the environment, and "other areas of mutual benefit."
Among other things, Israel and the UAE will launch direct flights to allow Muslim pilgrims to visit Jerusalem holy sites.
"There will be an official signing at the White House over the next few weeks," Trump told reporters, celebrating a major success of his Middle East diplomacy.
The president said that he expects more Arab and Muslim states to normalize relations with Israel, and the United States is already in talks with other "very powerful, very good nations" to facilitate it.
"Things are happening that I can't talk about, but they are extremely positive," Trump said.
White House Senior Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and his pointman for Middle East endeavors, revealed to reporters that the US had to suspend discussions with other states to allow the UAE to be the first as "they wanted to make history."
US chief allies in the Middle East, Israel and six Arab monarchies of the Gulf, have been reportedly cooperating in secret over recent years, brought together by mutually perceived threats of Iran's regional expansionism and the rise of Sunni radicals.
Svetlova believes that Bahrain and Oman are the most likely candidates to follow the UAE's lead.
The White House said that the newly announced peace deal crowns a year and a half of talks.
Svetlova dates meaningful contacts between Israel and the UAE back to the early 1990s with gradual evolution to the exchange of visits that only "deaf and blind would fail to notice."
In a highly symbolic gesture the UAE allowed Israel to establish its office with the International Renewable Energy Agency in Abu Dhabi and participate in World Expo which was to take place in Dubai in 2020.
The deal will have major implications for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, seemingly indefinitely deferring plans to annex a third of the occupied West Bank. Israel was expected as early as in July to apply its sovereignty over the territories claimed by the Palestinian for the state of their own, but without much explanation reneged on the move, though it was endorsed in Trump's "deal of the century" peace initiative.
"As a result of this diplomatic breakthrough and at the request of President Trump with the support of the United Arab Emirates, Israel will suspend declaring sovereignty over areas outlined in the President's Vision for Peace and focus its efforts now on expanding ties with other countries in the Arab and Muslim world," the White House statement said.
Israeli lawmaker Andrey Kozhinov told Sputnik that "it is clear that this postponed for a completely indefinite time, apparently for good, a unilateral spread of Israeli sovereignty over the territories of Judea and Samaria."
Kozhinov, a member of the Knesset centrist opposition, praised the achievement.
"From a regional point of view, any formal relationship with moderate Arab Sunni countries is a big breakthrough. Here you need to congratulate Netanyahu and Israel on such an accomplishment," he said.
The UAE's move, however, appears to be an erosion of the common Arab position which, as manifested in the regional peace initiative of 2002, offered normalization as a reward for Israel's withdrawal from the occupied territories. Both ruling Palestinian movements, Fatah and Hamas, have already denounced the agreement.
Svetlova said that the UAE specifically moved to prevent a potentially explosive annexation by warning Israel publicly that, if implemented, there won't be any rapprochement. However, she doubts that the UAE is able or eager to mediate between the conflict parties.
"It seems to me that this agreement is primarily about bilateral relations, about Israel and the UAE, about the fight against Iran, about the economy, about high-tech and medicine cooperation. This is what matters to the UAE and Israel. The Palestinian issue is rapidly pushed aside - to the regret of many in Ramallah and many in Israel as well," Svetlova said.
Now a Research Fellow at the Israeli Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center, she belonged to the influential center-left Zionist Union Party and for four consecutive years, until early 2019, served as a member of parliamentary opposition to right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, attacking him for reneging on the peace process with the Palestinians.
"I hope that the Israeli leadership does not forget that our main conflict is not with the UAE, not with Bahrain or Oman, but with the Palestinian Authority, with the Palestinian people," Svetlova said.
"Regardless of how many more peace agreements we sign with the Arab countries, until the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is resolved, there will be no stability in our corner of the Middle East. Peace with neighbors will have to be discussed directly with neighbors," Svetlova added.
Former US Ambassador Chas Freeman told Sputnik the deal could actually backfire on UAE.
"One wonders what, specifically, the UAE has gained from this move, which is more likely to isolate it in the Arab world and disadvantage it in its contention with Iran than to gain influence in its region," Freeman, former assistant secretary of defense for international security policy, said on Thursday. "The agreement shows what has already been evident for some time: the United Arab Emirates marches to its own drummer. It is unlikely that others will march with it into the embrace of Israel."
