Israel, UAE ministers to meet in US
WASHINGTON: The top diplomats from Israel and the United Arab Emirates were set to hold three-way talks in Washington yesterday as President Joe Biden’s administration embraces and looks to expand a normalisation drive.
Concerns about Iran — the spectre of which helped bring together Israel and Gulf states when they established relations last year as part of the Abraham Accords — were expected to be high on the agenda after Mr Biden’s early diplomatic overtures to Tehran bore little immediate fruit.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due to meet separately and together with Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and his Emirati counterpart Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, following a similar virtual event last month.
Former president Donald Trump considered the so-called Abraham Accords to be a crowning achievement for his administration as the UAE, followed by Bahrain and Morocco, became the first Arab states to normalise relations with Israel in decades.
Despite their myriad policy differences, the Biden team has given credit to the Trump administration over the Abraham Accords, dismissing criticism that normalisation ignores the plight of the Palestinians.
Mr Trump’s approach was also seen as transactional as he agreed to sell state-of-the-art fighter-jets to the UAE and recognise Morocco’s controversial claim over Western Sahara — moves that Mr Biden has not changed.
A senior State Department official said that the Abraham Accords can “help to achieve a more peaceful and prosperous Middle East”.
“It’s not a substitute to a two-state solution. We hope that normalisation can be leveraged to advance progress on the Israeli-Palestinian track,” the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
He said the three nations will announce working groups to expand cooperation on energy and water — a scarce resource in the Middle East — as well as religious coexistence.
Both Israel and the UAE have boasted of dividends since signing their accord in the presence of Mr Trump at the White House in September last year.
Israel has made progress in its longterm goal of ending its isolation in its near neighbourhood, while the UAE has voiced hope at $1 trillion (33.3 trillion baht) in new economic activity over the next decade through trade.
The US official said the Biden administration was “actively working to expand” normalisation but declined to give specifics. Sudan said last year it would seek relations with Israel but has balked amid heavy pressure on the country’s fragile new government.