Israel-UAE Deal Nears Completion
The agreement to normalize diplomatic relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, announced on August 13, now has a date for completion. Called the “Abraham Accord,” the pact will be formally signed on September 15 at the White House, according to JNS.org. An Israeli delegation led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a senior Emirati delegation led by Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed, and U.S. President Donald Trump will attend the ceremony. The deal will be the first White House peace-accord signing since Israel and Jordan’s 1994 agreement. Israel and the UAE have begun meeting to discuss collaborations in “security, technology, health care, culture, energy and the environment,” JNS.org said.
An additionally encouraging fact is that the Palestinian Authority, which has strongly denounced the deal since its announcement last month, has relaxed its criticism in recent days. As Palestinian leadership gets set for today’s meeting of the Arab League in Cairo to discuss the Abraham Accord, the P.A. will present its draft resolution that doesn’t condemn the UAE because the deal “doesn’t diminish Arab consensus over the Paletinian cause, the Palestinian cause is the cause of the entire Arab nation,” Reuters reported.
One of the biggest roadblocks to the success of this agreement was always the response of the Palestinian Authority. Certainly no one expected PA leader Mahmoud Abbas to stand up and applaud the deal, but the fact that he hasn’t called for action or violence of any kind against the UAE and Israel is a big relief. We’re now on the brink of the completion of the deal, less than a week away.. We hope this will be a huge step in Israel’s continued efforts to make peace with its historically hostile neighbors.
