UAE Ambassador to the United States Yousef Al Otaiba on Friday warned that the proposed Israeli annexation of the West Bank territories would undermine all progress achieved between the two Middle Eastern states, as well as all efforts to establish normal ties between Israel and Palestine and other Arab countries
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th June, 2020) UAE Ambassador to the United States Yousef Al Otaiba on Friday warned that the proposed Israeli annexation of the West Bank territories would undermine all progress achieved between the two Middle Eastern states, as well as all efforts to establish normal ties between Israel and Palestine and other Arab countries.
According to US President Donald Trump's so-called "deal of the century" unveiled in late January, Israel would annex land in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley. Trump's deal proposes a two-state solution in the region that would allow for the creation of a demilitarized Palestinian state. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's unity government has supported the plan, while most of the Arab countries totally rejected the agreement. In late May, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said it will terminate all treaties with the US and Israel in response to the latter's intents.
"We wanted to speak directly to the Israelis ... All the progress that you have seen and the attitudes that have been changing towards Israel, people becoming more accepting of Israel and less hostile to Israel, all of that could be undermined by a decision to annex [West Bank territories] ... I wanted to make sure people understood the risks associated with this decision beyond the immediate consequences of what happens in the Israeli-Palestinian track," Al Otaiba said in his direct address to the Israeli citizens in an article for Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.
The diplomat expressed hope that Israel would change its position toward its intents to seize Palestine's territories, as the UAE saw a great potential for the development of relations between Israel and Arab countries, according to the ambassador.
"In the UAE, and in most part of the Arab world, we would like to believe that Israel is an opportunity, not an enemy. We face too many common threats and feel a tremendous potential to build stronger bonds. Israel's decision to annex [the West Bank] would be an unmistakable response to a question, whether it sees things the same way," Al Otaiba added.
According to the diplomat, the annexation plans are a "provocation," and it is impossible to hold talks on the normalization of relations with Arab states in such a context.
Al Otaiba also stressed that the decision on the annexation would severely affect such Arab countries, as Jordan and Egypt, and would complicate their own issues and challenges.
Earlier in the day, Israeli Water Resources and Higher Education Minister Zeev Elkin told Sputnik that the country's government intended to annex about 30 percent of Palestine's West Bank territories within the coming two to three months.
The minister expressed hope that the international community would recognize Israel's new borders but conceded that this process might take some time.
