Dubai- Masaader News
Several Arab countries are in different stages on the way to relations with Israel, said UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash on Thursday, exactly one week after the country’s historic agreement with Israel, according to Alarabiya.
“There are several Arab countries that are on this scale in different stages,” said Gargash during a virtual talk with US think tank the Atlantic Council.
“The region does need a strategic breakthrough,” he added.
The UAE’s relationship with Israel going forward will be a “warm peace,” according to Gargash.
“This is going to be a warm peace. Because unlike Jordan or Egypt, we have not fought a war with Israel,” said Gargash.
Israel signed a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979, and with Jordan in 1994.
Gargash added that any UAE embassy in Israel “will be in Tel Aviv” – not Jerusalem. US President Donald Trump moved the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2018, essentially recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Israel considers all Jerusalem its undivided capital but the Palestinians see the eastern part, home to 360,000 Palestinians, as the capital of their future state.
Israel’s suspension of annexation of Palestinian land, which was part of the agreement, was “critical in our thinking,” according to Gargash.
“The UAE saw an opportunity because we’ve always been urged…by the Palestinians to help us in stopping annexation…by linking it to the suspension of annexation, we came out with a good deal,” he said.
Gargash said the UAE is “very encouraged” by the bipartisan support for the agreement in the US. Republican President Donald Trump took an active role in the agreement and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has expressed his support.
“We expect our strategic relationship with the United States…will actually develop much further” following the deal, Gargash said.
This week has seen major developments in UAE-Israel relations. On Tuesday, UAE National Security Adviser Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan received Yossi Cohen, head of Israel’s foreign intelligence, the Mossad.
The two discussed bilateral cooperation in several fields, according to state news agency WAM.
On Monday, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin invited Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to Jerusalem.
Rivlin expressed the invitation in a letter, written in Arabic.
“I’m full of hope that this step will contribute to building and strengthening the mutual trust between us and the region’s nations,” said Rivlin in the letter.
The UAE confirmed on Sunday that a phone link had been set up with Israel, unblocking phone calls between the countries.
UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi “inaugurated a phone link between the United Arab Emirates and the State of Israel following the historic Peace Accord,” said UAE Director of Strategic Communications at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Hend Al Otaiba in a post on Twitter on Sunday.