Last Thursday the Knesset ratified the peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and the first official Emirati delegation will visit Jerusalem this Tuesday. Bahrain announced on 11 September its intention to follow Abu Dhabi and normalize relations with the Jewish state, joining in extremis the official signing ceremony of the Abrahamic Accords at the White House four days later.
Israel, the government approves the normalization of relations with the United Arab Emirates
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October 18 is a symbolic date as the UN arms embargo on Iran ends today. For months, the Gulf countries have joined Israel and the United States in an unsuccessful attempt to reach a compromise on renewal in the Security Council. Today’s signature is also a clear signal of the anti-Iranian union of intentions that is pushing Sunni countries to make public reports that have been going on under the table for over a decade.
In Bahrain, where there is a Shiite majority, the announcement of normalization with Israel was received with more skepticism and also with some objections, unlike what happened with the Emirates. For this reason, an interim agreement is signed today mainly focused on the definition of economic relations, with a lot of interest in cooperation on agriculture in the desert. Already on 23 September an Israeli delegation with a focus on security issues had gone to Bahrain and on 1 October the head of Mossad Yossi Cohen had visited Manama, for the first time in the light of the sun. The forecast is that visa issues and the exchange of ambassadors will be settled by the end of the year.
The new Middle East emerging from the Israel-Emirates-Bahrain agreement
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“Israel is no longer isolated in the Middle East, but now it also has many more commitments to its new allies,” he told Republic Ahdeya Al Sayed, the president of the Bahraini journalists association. “This peace creates countless opportunities, especially for future generations, and young Palestinians will also see the fruits. We hope to see a change of course in the Palestinian leadership as well, to see leaders ready to genuinely negotiate and serve their people. “.
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Al Otaiba: “Secret understandings with handshakes. So we reached the Abrahamic Agreements “
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The Palestinian leadership calls the normalization agreements “a stab in the back, the betrayal of the Arab world to the Palestinian cause and to Al Aqsa”, as it violates the principle of Arab solidarity that had hitherto bound normalization with Israel with a resolution of the conflict with the Palestinians. However, after the long interview granted to Al Arabya two weeks ago by Prince Bandar bin Sultan al Saud, formerly powerful Saudi ambassador to Washington and head of intelligence services, in which he launched an unprecedented attack on Palestinian leaders for “always making the wrong decisions”, the official reactions of Ramallah have vanished. In an internal letter released by the Palestinian Foreign Ministry, anyone in official positions is ordered to refrain from commenting on bin Sultan’s statements, to avoid breaking further with the Saudis, the main financiers of the Palestinians in the Arab world.
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The new alliances that reshape the Middle East
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Only Saeb Erekat, the historic Palestinian chief negotiator and Secretary General of the PLO Executive Committee, had tweeted a veiled criticism, reiterating that “whoever wants to proceed with normalization with Israel can do so without defaming the legendary struggle of the Palestinian people”. Erekat, 65, one of the most prominent faces of the Palestinian cause, was today transported from his home in Jericho, where he had been under observation for 10 days as a positive for Covid, at the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. Erekat is a patient at risk as he underwent a lung transplant three years ago. His condition worsened this morning requiring hospitalization.
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