UAE rows back on claim after Israel rejects annexation cancelled

The UAE has been forced to admit that its initial claim of having normalized ties with Israel in exchange for Tel Aviv's cancellation of its annexation plans is far from the truth. 

UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said Friday the primary achievement of the deal was the suspension of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to annex large parts of the West Bank for a “long time”. 

"I think we have bought a lot of time… I don’t think it is a short suspension,” he told the Walla news site in an interview billed as the first by an Emirati minister with an Israeli news website.

On Thursday, Israeli leaders lined up to call UAE Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan's bluff that Israeli regime's annexation plans were off the table after the deal.

“There is no change to my plan to extend sovereignty, our sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, in full coordination with the United States,” Netanyahu said in al-Quds, using the biblical name for the occupied West Bank. 

A senior Israeli source said the Trump administration had requested to temporarily suspend the announcement of annexations "to first implement the historic peace agreement with the UAE”.

Nevertheless, the UAE wants to push forward on normalization with Israel "as soon as possible", Gargash said. “I see teams meeting in order to address many of the areas of interest in Israel and in the UAE.”

Gargash specified that the fields the UAE wanted to cooperate with the regime of Israel included agriculture, food security, cybersecurity, tourism, technology and trade.

An Israeli delegation is reportedly about to travel to the United Arab Emirates early next week to meet with the Persian Gulf state’s top leaders.

Israel's Channel 12 television said a senior Israeli regime official would lead the team. The Ynet news site said this would be the director of Mossad spy agency, Yossi Cohen, who is said to have led normalization bids over the past year.

Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that Israel's national security adviser, Meir Ben-Shabbat, would lead preparations for the talks “in coordination with all the relevant parties.”

Channel 12 said some aspects of the normalization agreement may be signed during the visit. The two sides would also schedule a meeting between Emirati and Israeli leaders to take place within the next few weeks.

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he believed a deal-signing ceremony could take place at the White House in about three weeks.

Secretary-General of the Palestine Liberation Organization Saeb Erekat said on Friday the agreement is a stab in the back of the Palestinian nation.

“I never expected this poisonous dagger to come from an Arab country,” Erekat said as he addressed UAE rulers.  

“You are rewarding aggression … You have destroyed, with this move, any possibility of peace between Palestinians and Israelis,” the senior Palestinian official and a veteran negotiator added.

Various Palestinian factions in the occupied West Bank and besieged Gaza Strip have roundly condemned the normalization announcement.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has voiced his “strong rejection and condemnation” and called for an emergency meeting of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

Hamas denounced the pact as a “stab in the back of the Palestinian people and a desperate attempt to undermine the resistance front, which aims to defeat the Israeli occupation and restore Palestinians’ rights”.

The movement said "Emirati rulers will gain nothing but shame and loss, as they will sooner or later realize that the replacement of Arab allies with the Israeli occupation equals to political suicide".

MG