Israel and the United Arab Emirates reached an agreement to work toward fully normalized relations, a potentially historic breakthrough that U.S. President Donald Trump said will facilitate peace in the Mideast.
The move means the UAE would join Egypt and Jordan as the only Arab countries with normal ties with Israel, signaling the nations will send ambassadors and open more direct commercial relations. According to a joint statement on Thursday, the UAE and Israel will begin a range of talks in the “coming weeks,” while Israel also agreed to suspend efforts to declare sovereignty over parts of the West Bank.
As part of the deal, Israel also agreed to suspend controversial moves to annex portions of the West Bank, an effort that was widely seen as having put any final peace agreement further from reach.
The deal is a “significant” step toward peace in the Mideast, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, while the joint statement said a signing ceremony will take place at the White House.
Ties between Israel and Gulf Arab states have warmed in recent years, in large part due to a shared distrust of Iran. But they haven’t ripened into open relations, let alone normalization.
“The announcement is big and the White House will be able to claim that it has achieved a breakthrough in the traditional wall of divide in Arab-Israeli relations,” said Ayham Kamel, a Mideast expert at the Eurasia Group. Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment and former Mideast official at the State Department, called the accord a “win for all 3” nations.
Comments from the leader of the UAE, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed, were more nuanced than the remarks from Trump and in the joint statement issued by the White House.
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