By LIPR Ambassador of Peace Dr. Syed Ali Naqvi
Israel–United Arab Emirates relations had been cool for several decades, but in the 2010s, the countries’ informal relations improved considerably and they began engaging in extensive unofficial cooperation based on their joint opposition to Iran’s nuclear program and regional influence. In 2015, Israel opened an official diplomatic mission in Abu Dhabi to the International Renewable Energy Agency.
In a significant warming of official Israeli-UAE relations, Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) formally agreed in August 2020 to “normalize” relations in a United States-brokered deal that also requires Israel to halt its plan to annex parts of the West Bank, including the Jordan Valley. A joint statement issued by the UAE, Israel and the United States said that the three countries had “agreed to the full normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates”. The signing ceremony was held on 15 September 2020.
Turkey and Iran both criticized the agreement. On 16 August 2020, the UAE for the first time established telephone links with Israel by unblocking direct dialing to Israel’s +972 country code. The first direct commercial flight from Israel to the UAE was an El Al flight on 31 August 2020. On 24 January 2021, the official Israeli embassy in the UAE was opened with Eitan Na’eh serving as an acting ambassador/Chargé d’affaires, Mohamed Al Khaja was selected to be the first UAE ambassador to Israel.
The first president of the UAE after the UAE became an independent country in 1971, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, referred to Israel as “the enemy” of the Arab countries.
After the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai on 19 January 2010, the UAE called, via Interpol, for the arrest of Meir Dagan, director of Israel’s Mossad. Israel has neither denied nor confirmed any involvement. Dubai’s Chief of police, Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, stated that all travelers suspected of being Israeli will not be allowed into the country, even if they arrived on foreign passports. After the incident, the UAE later proposed repairing its covert relationship with Israel through a deal where Israel would provide armed drones to them, but this was rejected by Israel due to concern that it would antagonize the United States.
Relations between the two countries had been improving since then. On 16 January 2010, Israel’s Minister of National Infrastructure Uzi Landau attended a renewable energy conference in Abu Dhabi. He was the first Israeli minister to visit Abu Dhabi.
In January 2016, Israel’s Energy Minister visited the UAE at the site of International Renewable Energy Agency headquarters in Abu Dhabi.
In September 2018, the UAE hosted secret talks in Abu Dhabi between Israeli and Turkish officials to discuss restoring relations between those two countries.
In April 2019, Israel announced that it has been invited to take part at Dubai’s Expo 2020 innovation fair
2020 Abraham Accord
Israel–United Arab Emirates agreement
On 13 August 2020, Israel and the UAE signed an agreement mediated by U.S. President Donald Trump. Under the deal, Israel and the UAE will establish full diplomatic relations, with the UAE becoming the third Arab state, besides Egypt and Jordan, to fully recognize Israel. As part of the deal, Israel agreed to suspend plans for the annexation of the Jordan Valley. Director of the Mossad, Yossi Cohen, secretly visited UAE several times for over a year to broker the Abraham Accord.
The agreement was made official with a signing ceremony on 15 September 2020 at the White House in Washington, D.C. The UAE’s ambassador to the US and close adviser to Mohammed bin Zayed, Yousef Al Otaiba, was one of the main negotiators of the peace deal. Al Otaiba was one of the well-connected and powerful advocates in the US who was in contact with Jared Kushner, who was leading the peace deal negotiations. In August 2020, Al Otaiba released a statement praising the Abraham Accord as “a win for diplomacy and for the region” and stated that it “lowers tensions and creates new energy for positive change.”
The Abraham Accords revealed the rifts in the relationship between Palestine and Gulf monarchies, specially the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Under a 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, Arab nations declared that Israel would only receive “normal” ties in return for a statehood deal with the Palestinians and an end to the occupation. However, the Palestinian ambassador to the UK, Husam Zomlot warned that the longstanding policy had been undermined. A senior Palestinian politician, Saeb Erekat condemned the deals as a “tremendous encouragement for the Israeli government to continue their occupation”. However, under the deal, Israel agreed to “suspend” annexation, but critics stated that the clause was only added as lip service to the Palestinian issue, while Israeli politicians argued that the annexation plan is still a priority.
The peace deal between the UAE and Israel was being asserted to cause damage to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East (UNRWA), as the Emirates was considering to gradually eliminate aid to the agency. It was cited as a part of the normalization deal. In 2019, Abu Dhabi granted $51 million to the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees. The next year only $1 million were sent by the UAE.
