The United Arab Emirates' agreement to normalise ties with Israel may be a "sovereign decision" that wasn't directed at Iran, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said.
Israel and therefore the UAE announced they were establishing full diplomatic relations during a US-brokered deal which will see Israel delay plans for annexation of land it already illegally occupies that's sought by the Palestinians for his or her future state.
"The UAE-Israeli peace may be a sovereign decision not directed at Iran. we are saying this and repeat it. We don't accept interference in our decisions," Gargash said on Twitter on Monday.
On Sunday, the UAE summoned Iran's diplomat in Abu Dhabi and gave him a "strongly worded memo" in response to a speech by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani that the foreign ministry described as "unacceptable".
Speaking on Saturday, Rouhani said the UAE had made a "huge mistake" in reaching an agreement to normalise ties with Israel and called it a betrayal by the Gulf state.
The US-sponsored deal has been seen as firming up opposition to regional power Iran, which Gulf states, Israel and Washington deem the most threat within the conflict-riven Middle East .
On Sunday, the secretary-general of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council condemned "threats" by Rouhani and other Iranian officials towards the UAE over the accord.
The risk is it could make the UAE leadership highly unpopular within the wider Arab world where some social media postings are calling it "a sell-out". Were the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to renege his promise to temporarily shelve annexation of parts of the West Bank then that might be extremely embarrassing for the Emiratis and possibly see the entire deal unravel.
After Egypt's peace with Israel in 1979, followed by Jordan's in 1994, this makes the UAE only the third Arab country to normalise relations. it's the primary of the six Arab Gulf states to try to to so. Oman. Bahrain and possibly Morocco are widely expected to follow.
Discreet contacts between the UAE and Israel had been under way for years but still, the small print and timing of this normalisation deal were kept secret right up to the eleventh hour .
There were no consultations between the UAE foreign ministry in Abu Dhabi and its Arab neighbours. Almost everyone was taken all of sudden , most of all the Palestinians, who called it "a stab within the back" since they need yet to return on the brink of getting a state of their own or ending Israeli occupation.
"For the Palestinians, there's zero upside here," comments Emile Hokayem from the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.
For the UAE's de facto ruler prince Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed (known as MBZ), this deal are some things of a big gamble but one with the chances heavily in his favour.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted the annexation plans are only on "temporary hold" at the request of the US.
On Sunday, Israel's intelligence minister Eli Cohen told Army Radio that Bahrain and Oman might be subsequent Gulf countries to follow the UAE in formalising ties with Israel.
Israel signed peace agreements with Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994. But the UAE, along side most other Arab nations, has had no formal diplomatic or economic relations with it.
Oman maintains friendly ties with the US and Iran and has previously been a go-between for the 2 feuding countries.
A close ally of Saudi Arabia - which has not yet commented on the UAE-Israel accord - Bahrain hosted a senior Israeli official at a security conference in 2019 also as a US-led conference on boosting the Palestinian economy as part US President Donald Trump's Middle East plan.
Government sources in Kuwait said its position towards Israel is unchanged, and it'll be the last country to normalise relations, local newspaper al-Qabas reported.
"In the short term, the pitfalls for the UAE are very limited," says Mr Hokayem. "This deal isn't getting to affect the UAE regime's stability. It reflects the changing geopolitics of the region and it buys the UAE tons of goodwill within the US, where its image has been tarnished by its involvement within the Yemen war."
Israel and UAE strike historic peace deal
What does Trump’s Mid-East plan say on key issues?
Explainer: Israel, annexation and therefore the West Bank
So what's behind this deal and what's in it for this relatively young Gulf nation and former British protectorate that only became a sovereign nation in 1971?
In short, it's two things - strategic advantage and technology.
The UAE, along side Bahrain and Saudi Arabia , features a deep mistrust, even a fear, of its giant, heavily-armed neighbour across the water: Iran.
Gulf Arab leaders check out the map of the region and that they note how, despite crippling sanctions, Iran's strategic presence has advanced rapidly across the center East ever since the bulwark of Saddam Hussein's regime was removed in Iraq.
Where once Iran was largely confined to its national borders, today it's proxy militias in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. Israel shares this concern, especially when it involves Iran's secretive nuclear programme.
Then there's what's referred to as "Islamism" or "political Islam", a transnational concept often embodied by the Muslim Brotherhood and one which certain Gulf Arab rulers deem an existential threat to their dynastic monarchies. No-one dislikes the Muslim Brotherhood more fervently than the UAE prince and this has led to the UAE backing anti-Muslim Brotherhood factions as distant as Libya while seeing its interests clash increasingly with those of Turkey's Islamist government.
In practice, this has led to the formation of an unofficial partnership of conservative Middle Eastern governments, a de facto club to which Israel, with its formidable intelligence capabilities, is now being admitted as an associate member.
And there's technology, including biotech, healthcare, defence and cyber surveillance. Here, the UAE already has form, having purchased Israeli-manufactured spyware some years ago to stay an eye fixed on its own citizens. The UAE has deep pockets - it's vast oil reserves and a per capita GDP of nearly $40,000 (£30,000). It also has ambitions globally, and beyond, having just become the primary Arab country to send a mission to Mars.
0 comments:
Post a Comment