But the “Abraham Agreement,” as the agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates is called, is a significant shift in the balance of power in the Middle East and is portrayed by the White House as a major foreign policy coup. The deal represented a significant political reversal for Netanyahu, who had long pushed for an increase in settlements in the occupied West Bank in a bid to annex the region. Netanyahu has come under political pressure to be flexible, as three of the last elections gave him only a majority in a coalition government and he was prosecuted in 2021. In 2019, the Trump administration reversed decades of U.S. policy by declaring that settlements in the West Bank did not violate international law, a move that threatened the two-state solution long seen as the key to lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The Trump administration`s Middle East policy, drafted by senior presidential adviser Jared Kushner and released in January 2020, endorsed Netanyahu`s plan to annex existing settlements. After Yousef Al Otaiba, the UAE`s ambassador to the United States, wrote an opinion piece in June 2020 warning that annexation would jeopardize better relations between Israel and the Arab world, Kushner saw an opportunity and intervened to facilitate the talks. After negotiators reached an agreement, Trump, Netanyahu and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed held a conference call immediately before an official announcement. [21] [9] [27] [28] [29] As the UAE and Bahrain are regional business centers, the two peace agreements will facilitate people-to-people interactions between a growing number of Israeli visitors and hundreds of thousands of foreign workers from across the Arab and Islamic world – including Iranians, Iraqis, Lebanese, Palestinians and Syrians – whose countries of origin have hostile relations with Israel, if at all. While the process will be gradual, creating a space for these populations to interact with each other for the first time as real people – away from hostilities, mutual blame, and government propaganda – will have a revolutionary impact on all sides and on regional peace. The new peace agreements address a critical gap in Israel`s previous agreements with Egypt and Jordan.

Whether the agreement itself could be a step towards peace, consolidate the deterioration of the summer status quo, or be interpreted as the death of the IPA, will be determined by the details and implementation of the final agreement. What is certain is that the Palestinian leadership feels deeply betrayed. Annexation was postponed, but the growing recklessness of the summer worsened the status quo in the West Bank. Without an improvement in living conditions in the territories controlled by the Palestinian Authority – the current situation is the ongoing occupation, creeping annexation, declining regional and public support, increasing economic tensions and decreasing the likelihood of establishing a viable Palestinian state – the risk of PA collapse will continue to increase. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned the UAE that this would have dangerous implications for the deal. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called the deal a “big mistake” and warned the UAE against allowing Israel a secure presence in the Gulf. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called it a betrayal of Arab and non-Arab countries in the Middle East. A group of less than 100 demonstrators gathered on 15 September.

In August, in front of the UAE embassy in Tehran, chanting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.” Protesters also burned Israel`s flag. [72] The conservative Kayhan newspaper, whose editor is appointed by Iran`s Supreme Leader, warned that the deal had made the UAE a “legitimate and easy target.” [73] This agreement, if concluded, would set a new benchmark for Israeli-Jordanian civil cooperation. Countries have already cooperated on gas infrastructure with the sale of Israeli natural gas to Jordan. They even reached a preliminary agreement for a hydroelectric project that transports seawater from the Red Sea (at sea level) to the Dead Sea at -400 meters – the Red Dead project. However, the deal never materialized because Israel was concerned about the benefits of the project and the public was concerned about its impact on the Dead Sea. However, none of the previous agreements would have had this effect in real terms, particularly in Jordan`s water supply. Other leaders and factions, including the Islamic Jihad movement in Palestine, unanimously rejected the deal, according to Al Jazeera. The head of the Palestinian National Initiative, Mustafa Barghouti, said they were not surprised by the recent steps taken by the UAE and the fact that the Emiratis had never tried to fight Israel. He added that this could encourage other nations to ignore the Palestinian issue.

Palestine Liberation Front leader Wasel Abu Yousef said the deal only gave Israel more influence over its occupation. Otherwise, it would only exacerbate the Arab-Israeli conflict. [88] The Turkish Foreign Ministry condemned the agreement, saying that the history and people of the Middle East would not forgive or forget what the UAE had done, and that it was a violation of the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative. She called the UAE`s behavior hypocritical, adding that the Palestinians were right to reject the deal. [80] President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan later said turkey was considering suspending or severing diplomatic relations with the UAE in retaliation and recalled its ambassador from Abu Dhabi. [80] Bahrain`s foreign minister will attend the event and sign his own agreement to normalize relations with Israel, announced by President Donald Trump last week. A significant dynamic for an agreement began when Israel on the 1st. July did not begin with the process of annexing the West Bank, as Netanyahu had indicated.

The Emiratis reportedly took the opportunity to promise full normalization of relations if annexation were removed from the table. It was the subtext of a commentary published by the Emirati ambassador to the United States in June in Israel`s largest daily, Yedioth Ahronoth. Donald J. Trump`s administration sympathized with Israel`s strong desire to expand the country`s formal diplomatic relations with Arab countries in the Persian Gulf and use the UAE embassy, and oversaw the tripartite diplomacy that led to the Abraham Accords. On August 16, 2020, Israel and the United Arab Emirates introduced direct telephony services. [15] Emirati company APEX National Investment and Israel`s Tera Group have signed a partnership agreement in COVID-19 research, making it the first trade agreement signed between companies from both countries since relations normalized. [137] Mossad Director Yossi Cohen arrived in the UAE on August 18 to discuss security cooperation, regional developments, as well as issues affecting both countries with National Security Advisor Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan. .