Israel ratifies the Abraham Agreements
The news was already announced, but the celebrations come today after the ratification by Israel and its chamber of ministers. On Monday the Israeli government unanimously approved the historic agreement signed in September with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to normalise bilateral relations.
In a statement, the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, stressed that all the ministers had voted in favour of the Abraham Agreement. The Knesset, Israel's unicameral parliament, is expected to ratify the agreement this Thursday. The agreement is expected to be approved in a vote with an overwhelming majority.
Israel and the United Arab Emirates are already cooperating on issues of economic and technological development, as well as the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. Both countries have committed themselves to continue their cooperation on a larger scale.
The famous Abraham Agreements do not mention sensitive issues such as the suspension of Israel's plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, a point that was agreed in exchange for the normalisation of relations between the two countries. But the Emirates, at the time, argued that they would establish talks with Israel to put a stop to these annexations.
Netanyahu signed the agreement with the United Arab Emirates' foreign minister, Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, at an event with the US president, Donald Trump, on 15 September in Washington.
At the last minute, the kingdom of Bahrain also wished to join the agreement. This was how the Israeli prime minister signed a similar declaration with Bahrain at the same event, a document that has yet to be translated into Hebrew and will be voted on later.
Nor does the agreement with the Emirates mention the possible sale of weapons by the United States to the Emirate authorities, an operation that could cause misgivings about its consequences in the Middle East region, particularly to the Palestinian authorities.
The Palestinian leaders have reacted with rejection to the two agreements signed with the two Gulf countries and have denounced them as a "betrayal". With their agreements with Israel, the Emirates and Bahrain are deviating from the general consensus among the Arab countries, which states that the precondition for normalising relations with Israel is the recognition of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamín Netanyahu, and the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, held a telephone conversation this weekend in which they discussed co-operation between their countries and regional dynamics in the Middle East.
After the call, they agreed to meet "soon". This was the first dialogue between the two since the signing of the agreement to regularise relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates at the White House last month.
"We discussed the strengthening of bilateral relations and examined the prospects for peace and the need for stability, cooperation and development in the region," Bin Zayed said today on his Twitter account.
During a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, we discussed strengthening bilateral ties and examined prospects for peace and the need for stability, cooperation and development in the region.
— محمد بن زايد (@MohamedBinZayed) October 12, 2020
Another issue discussed was the imminent visit of an Emirati delegation to Israel, which was scheduled for last month and was suspended due to the current confinement of the country in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
Precisely, cooperation in combating the virus was one of the aspects on which they promised to deepen their collaboration, which has grown rapidly in recent months in areas such as technology, artificial intelligence and even the diamond trade.
