The signing of the Abraham Agreements in Washington opens a new stage for the Middle East

Not because it is expected does it stop being history. This Tuesday, the Emirates, Bahrain, Israel and the United States have all been involved in a ceremony that will remain fixed in the historical narrative of the Middle East. This conflictive region is taking steps to cease to be so with the normalisation of relations between two Gulf states and Israel. The Abraham Agreements have been sealed following the official signing at the White House on Tuesday, opening up a new era. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamín Netanyahu, the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates, Abdullah bin Zayed al Nahyan, and the foreign minister of Bahrain, Abdulatif bin Rashid al Zayani, took part in the signing. The possibilities are immense: new trade agreements, exchange of goods and services, travel, tourism...

Donald Trump, the president of the United States, was the first to speak in Washington on Tuesday and said that the Abraham agreements whereby Israel will normalise its relations with the Emirates and Bahrain mark "a new dawn for the Middle East", according to the Efe news agency. Trump has been one of the mediators between the Arab countries and Israel and has scored an important diplomatic victory with the signing of this agreement that has earned him the proposal by a Norwegian parliamentarian for the Nobel Peace Prize. It is likely that Trump will also use the signing of the agreements as an example of his good management of US foreign policy ahead of the autumn elections against his Democratic rival, Joe Biden.

Following the US president's address, the Israeli president, Benjamin Netanyahu, took the floor. "The blessings of the peace we are making today will be enormous. First, because this peace will eventually expand to include other Arab states and eventually end the Arab-Israeli conflict once and for all", Netanyahu stated at the ceremony held at the White House. The foreign minister of Bahrain, Abdulatif bin Rashid al Zayani, also described the Abraham Agreements as "a historic step on the road to a genuine and lasting peace" in the Middle East, in a speech at the White House before the signing of the pact with Israel. "The declaration supporting peace between the Kingdom of Bahrain and the State of Israel is a historic step on the road to genuine and lasting peace, security and prosperity in the region," said Al Zayani. 

Getting to this Tuesday's ceremony has not been easy. The Emirates was the first to break the ice and announced on 13 August that it would normalise relations with Israel. "We broke the psychological barrier, how we can change what we think and how we have been doing things for many years", explained the Deputy Foreign Minister of the United Arab Emirates, Anwar Gargash, in a video conference on Tuesday before the signing of the agreement, in declarations collected by the Efe agency. "I think the turning point occurs once you realise that what you have been doing for so many years has not worked, everything else becomes more manageable," added Gargash, the heavyweight of Emirati diplomacy.

"The normalisation of ties between the United Arab Emirates and Israel is a historic diplomatic breakthrough and a hopeful sign that progress in the Middle East is possible," Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan wrote in the Wall Street Journal. "This is an opportunity for a new approach to address the challenges of the region. In an area and time too plagued by bad news, it raises opportunity and optimism about conflict and defeatism," he said. 

Although the official signing of the Abraham Agreements has arrived this Tuesday, the first contacts have already been made on issues related to security, the economy, science and communications. The deputy minister stated that the "polarisation in the region has been disastrous" and believes that the normalisation of relations with Israel, which the vast majority of Arab countries still do not recognise, is a way of breaking the deadlock in the Middle East. 

"Political issues must be resolved, but they cannot be obstacles to communication and relations", Gargash added, indicating that this is where the UAE sees opportunities and a role to play "in the region and beyond". Gargash believes that the concessions that the UAE has obtained in its agreement with Israel, which has committed itself not to annexing any more Palestinian territories in the West Bank, "are fundamental" for resolving these political issues. However, Gargash has indicated that "the signing of the agreement does not mean that the work is over". "It is up to us to try to build a warm peace that brings stability and economic opportunity, cultural coexistence and tolerance," he explained.

The foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, also referred to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, which for decades has set the Israeli government against its Arab neighbours at the signing ceremony. "This agreement will enable us to continue to defend the Palestinian people and realise their hope of an independent state within a stable and prosperous region", the emirate minister assured. The diplomat thanked Netanyahu for 'stopping the annexation of the Palestinian territories' under the agreement, even though the Israeli prime minister has assured that the annexation of part of the occupied West Bank is still 'on the table'.

The Tel Aviv City Council has illuminated the facade of the building with the word "peace" and the flags of these Persian Gulf monarchies on the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. "Together we can take the Middle East down a new path of hope, peace, tolerance and cooperation", said Israeli President Reuvén Rivlin, who hopes "that many Arab and Muslim countries will follow the example" of the UAE and Bahrain.

In Tel Aviv, the emblematic façade of its Consistory was lit up with the word "peace" in Hebrew, Arabic and English. At the same time, the flags of the Emirates and Bahrain were projected onto the iconic walls of the Old City of Jerusalem in the occupied east, alongside those of Israel and the United States. The celebrations have been overshadowed by air raid alarms that sounded in several Israeli communities bordering the Gaza Strip, according to Efe. According to local media, several projectiles were launched from the Strip into Israel, in what was interpreted as a message from Palestinian groups against the normalisation of relations between Israel and these two Gulf monarchies. 

"The normalisation agreements between the UAE and Bahrain with the Zionist entity (Israel) are not worth the ink they were written with, and our people" will continue to "insist on the struggle until they fully win their rights", stated Hazem Qasem, spokesman for the Islamist movement Hamas, which governs de facto in Gaza. The factions and the Palestinian leadership have roundly condemned the normalisation of relations between the two Gulf countries and Israel, which they consider a blow to the solidarity between the Arab states and which contradicts the Arab Peace Initiative, which offered Israel normalisation only when it signed a peace agreement with the Palestinians. On Tuesday small demonstrations took place in the West Bank and Gaza in rejection of the Abraham agreements.