Israel formalises agreements with the Emirates and Bahrain at the White House
The big day for the Middle East has arrived. The council in this part of the world turned 180 degrees after the Emirates and Israel announced the establishment of formal diplomatic ties. Another Gulf country, Bahrain, followed in the Emirates' footsteps last Friday. This Tuesday, with Donald Trump as host, the official signing of the Abraham Accords will take place.
The ceremony, organised with great pomp and ceremony by Trump, will officially establish diplomatic relations between Israel and two Gulf countries. This will be the first step towards peace in the Middle East since the peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, signed in 1979 and 1994 respectively. It seems that the leader of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Arab representatives will shake hands during the event, according to a senior US official. To prevent the spread of coronaviruses, all participants in the ceremony have been tested for coronaviruses. Hundreds of people are invited to the ceremony.
While contacts between the Arab states and the Israeli authorities have been taking place for some time, diplomatic ties between them have never been formalised. The new geopolitical scenario that is now opening up in the Middle East is an opportunity to establish new trade agreements, which are particularly necessary to overcome the ravages of the pandemic. The four countries meeting this Tuesday at the White House share a common hostility towards Iran. This circumstance is one of the keys that explain the geopolitical turnaround that took place this summer in the Middle East..
"This is a first-rate achievement," said David Makovsky, a researcher at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Donald Trump has pulled off a major diplomatic coup in the run-up to next autumn's elections, although his Middle East peace plan presented in January is still far from being implemented. The Palestinian Authority rejects it and has denied Trump his role as mediator, considering that he is defending Israel's interests. For part of the Arab world, the signing of the agreements in Washington on Tuesday is "a betrayal". Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said Tuesday will be "a dark day" for the Arab world, which will bring fractures and divisions. The Palestinians have called for demonstrations against the agreements and claim to have been "betrayed".
According to Makovsky, the Middle East is becoming "a new region". "The Palestinians want to wait and see what happens in the American elections, but when the dust settles they will have to rethink their position," Makovsky said. These agreements are a victory for Netanyahu and bring Israel closer to its goal of being accepted in the region. For Trump, who until now had few diplomatic means to offer voters, the agreements are a success that even his Democratic opponents have recognised. Donald Trump himself has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his mediation work in the Middle East. .
Although this agreement is of great importance, it does not solve all the problems in the Middle East. Israel has agreed to suspend the annexation of the West Bank, but it may return to these plans in the future, which the Gulf partners oppose. Nor did Netanyahu welcome the Emirates' intention to buy F-35 fighter jets from the United States, which could weaken Israel's military supremacy in the Middle East.
