UAE and Israel to sign peace deal in Washington
The UAE and Israel will today sign the Abraham Accord peace deal in Washington D.C.
Stipulating the full normalisation of relations between the UAE and Israel, the Abraham Accord will make the UAE the third Arab state ever to recognise Israel, following Egypt (1979) and Jordan (1994). Senior delegations led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan will convene at the White House for the occasion.
Mutual disdain for Iran and Turkey fostered growing Israeli-Gulf security cooperation over the past decade, laying the groundwork for today’s normalisation. The Gulf monarchies and Israel jointly lobbied against the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and both decry Tehran’s support of Shi’a militias throughout the Middle East—sharing a similar threat assessment regarding the Islamist political movements that Turkey has come to vigorously support during and after the Arab Spring.
The Abraham Accord indicates how changing threat perceptions and security dynamics have debilitated the importance of the Palestinian cause in Arab affairs. Continuing to exploit Gulf fears of Turco-Iranian encroachment, Israel is likely to seek further marginalisation of the Palestinian position. The Arab League’s failure to pass a resolution this past Wednesday condemning the UAE-Israeli normalisation followed by Bahrain’s decision to likewise normalise with Israel are stern reality checks for the Palestinians, in what is a significant blow to an already faltering two-state solution.
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