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Israel formally established diplomatic relations with two kingdoms of the Persian Gulf, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain on Tuesday, with the signing of agreements that they open a rift in the Arab consensus on how to move towards a Palestinian state and reinforce the pressure against Iran.
(Also read: Israel signs the Abrahamic Accords in the US with the Emirates and Bahrain)
US President Donald Trump led the signing ceremony of the historic Abraham Accords, negotiated with the mediation of the White House and with which The president scored a diplomatic victory before the November 3 elections.
“After decades of divisions and conflicts, we are witnessing the dawn of a new Middle East”, The Republican president said at a ceremony at the White House attended by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Emirates’ Foreign Ministers, Abdullah bin Zayed al Nahyan, and Bahrain’s Abdel Latif al Zayani. Abecé on the relevance and implications of the agreements.
Why are the peace accords between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain important?
It is historical because since its declaration of independence in 1948, the nascent State of Israel had to face wars and hostility from Arab countries, with successive conflicts in 1948, 1953, 1967, 1982, among others.
(It may interest you: ABC of relations between Israel and the Arab world)
Israel had already managed to sign peace agreements with Egypt in 1978 and Jordan in 1994, and with the Palestinians the Oslo Accords in 1993, which although not in itself a peace agreement, it meant a negotiation with a view to a normalization of relations aimed at the establishment of a Palestinian state.
This Tuesday, at the White House, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed the Abraham Accords.
Why don’t the Palestinians like the agreements signed with the UAE and Bahrain?
For several reasons. Among them because it breaks the consensus that existed among Arab countries not to recognize the State of Israel Until that time the issue was settled with the Palestinians.
In fact, this was one of the negotiating currencies of the Palestinians in the sense that the Arab countries were only going to establish relations at the time when Israel evicted. the so-called ‘Occupied Territories’, that is, those that this country conquered in the Six Day War (1967), which include the West Bank and East Jerusalem. That is why for them this is a betrayal of their Arab brothers that will not help bring peace to the region and that allows Israel to continue trampling their rights.
(You may be interested: For Iran, the Emirates ‘betrayed the Islamic world’ by pact with Israel)
However, the Emirati Foreign Minister said that the agreement does not mean abandoning the Palestinians, and that he will allow his government to continue “defending the Palestinian people.” Likewise, his counterpart in Bahrain said that trusts that the “peace” that these pacts will generate in the region will lead to a two-state solution.
Geopolitically speaking, what is behind these peace accords?
There is a common element that is the rivalry of the signatories with Iran, which has carried out an aggressive and expansive politics in the region that has been revealed in the conflicts in Syria, Yemen and others. This has meant that some Gulf countries have been forging underground ties with Israel and now crystallize with these peace accords. In this sense, it is announced which other countries could join.
US President Donald Trump (L) and Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu (R).
Other Arab countries?
That’s right: there is talk of Oman, Mauritania, and even Morocco, but nothing confirmed so far.
Trump himself said on Tuesday that his government is holding “very advanced” negotiations to that “other five countries” Arab also normalize their relations with Israel, and that it is in contact with the Palestinians. At the moment, it seems unlikely that the US will convince Saudi Arabia, the most geopolitical country in the region, to follow in the footsteps of the UAE and Bahrain.
Why are these peace accords said to benefit Trump and Netanyahu?
Because in Trump’s case it is an important achievement of international politics -one of the few- to achieve a peace agreement in an area so full of conflicts, something that falls very well a few months before the presidential elections.
(Also read: Demonstrations against Netanyahu in Israel intensify)
And in the case of Netanyahu, because your country is experiencing an internal crisis on several fronts: due to the impact of the coronavirus that has made the country after its opening to close again to avoid the excessive spread of the virus, and because thousands of people have recently taken to the streets to protest against the government of the right-wing Netanyahu for the corruption processes that it has open. The peace agreement is good news in the midst of such a complicated panorama.
INTERNATIONAL DRAFTING
