Middle East Desk Report
JERUSALEM: Despite mutual willingness with US sponsorship, the first-ever Israeli delegation to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is not enough to sign a breakthrough agreement.
During their two-day official meeting on Monday and Tuesday, Israel and the UAE both held a tough position, even with the mediation of the senior U.S. presidential advisor Jared Kushner.
Shaul Yanai, an expert from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and researcher at the Forum for Regional Thinking, said Kushner lacks the expertise of a professional diplomat especially when the U.S. presidential elections loom.
“His all authority derives from his family relationship with Trump. So maybe in two or three months if Trump loses the election, Kushner will lose all his power and influence, so he is not that important, and anybody here, in the UAE and the region, understands it,” Yanai told Xinhua.
In fact, more obstacles, such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, lie ahead before the final signing of a peace agreement between the UAE and Israel, according to Yanai.
Israel signed a peace agreement with Egypt in 1979 and with Jordan in 1994. Until the current peace talks with the UAE, many Israelis believed peace with more Arab states was not possible as long as the conflict with Palestinians remains unsolved.
Yoel Guzansky, a senior fellow researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, said another possible hindrance to the signing of the peace deal is Israel’s unwillingness to see “Americans sell all kinds of sophisticated weaponry to the UAE.”
Arab countries think about what they can benefit from peace with Israel, as well as which gestures, such as weapons, they can get in exchange from the United States, Guzansky noted.
Uzi Rabi, director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University, told Xinhua that the agreement of the UAE to normalize its relations with Israel has broken many of the taboos in the Middle East, creating a rift in the Arab League’s boycott of Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated on Wednesday that after years of efforts, Israeli planes would be allowed to fly over Saudi Arabia and the UAE to the East.
On Tuesday, Netanyahu announced that the first protocol of understandings had been signed between Israel and the UAE on cooperation in banking and financial services.
“These understandings will assist us in advancing mutual investments and widespread cooperation. We will soon announce additional agreements in aviation, tourism, trade, and others,” he said.
Earlier, The first official flight from Israel to the United Arab Emirates has landed, a major step in normalising relations after the announcement of a peace deal.
The El Al airliner made the three-hour trip, carrying a delegation of Israeli and US officials.
The flight was allowed to cross Saudi Arabian airspace, normally blocked to Israeli air traffic.
The UAE has become only the third Arab country in the Middle East to recognise Israel since its founding in 1948.
On Saturday, the UAE repealed a law boycotting Israel which had been in place since 1972, and earlier this month the two countries opened direct telephone services for the first time.
The agreement to normalise relations brokered by the US – was made public in a surprise announcement on 13 August.
