ISRAEL and the United Arab Emirates reached a deal yesterday that will lead to a full normalisation of diplomatic relations between the two, in an agreement that United States President Donald Trump brokered, with his Presidential election in mind.
This is the first time in 25 years that an Arab nation has ‘normalised’ relations with Israel.
Under this deal, Israel has agreed to ‘suspend’ applying sovereignty to areas of the West Bank and the Jordan Valley that it had been attempting to annex.
The so-called ‘peace deal’ was the product of lengthy discussions between Israel, the UAE and the United States that accelerated recently.
US President Trump said: ‘We thought that this would be the first country, and it was the first country. This is big stuff, the UAE is very powerful, very strong, has one of the strongest militaries.’
Other Arab states are saying that it is an attempt to form an anti-Iran front.
The United States, having failed to get the Palestinians to hand over their land, has now strengthened their relations between the UAE and Israel with a view to stepping up their preparations to tackle Iran.
Senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi slammed The United Arab Emirates for ‘normalisation’ with Israel.
Ashrawi, a Palestinian negotiator and member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, said on Twitter: ‘The UAE has come out in the open on its secret dealings/normalisation with Israel. Please don’t do us a favour. We are nobody’s fig leaf!’
