AbuDhabi: The United Arab Emirates’ peace deal with Israel is a “win-win solution” that takes away the “looming threat” of annexation in the West Bank, according to the Gulf country’s minister of state for foreign affairs.
“We were in Arab League meetings … and the whole idea was, what do we do to stop this annexation? Somehow, annexation seemed as a looming threat that will undermine any prospects of a two-state solution,” Anwar Gargash told on Thursday.
His comments were made shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump announced yesterday that both countries agreed to normalize relations, making the UAE the first Persian Gulf state and the third Arab nation to have open diplomatic ties with Israel.
“The UAE was quite active diplomatically and we took an unprecedented step of our ambassador … saying basically that annexation will just wreck the whole prospect of negotiations and peace, and will affect Israel’s prospects of establishing relations with the Arab world,” Gargash said.
“I can’t really pinpoint a certain moment, but the idea developed that why don’t we actually create a win-win solution,” he added.
Thomas Warrick, non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, agreed with the sentiment.
“It’s a good day for Israel and for the UAE, they both get something out of this that they very much want,” he said. “The UAE shows its value as a strategic partner to both U.S. political parties. Israel gets out of their being stuck over the settlements issue … This gives them a valuable prize, normalization of relations with the UAE.”
