Israel and United Arab Emirates sign landmark deal to normalise diplomatic relations

In a breaking development, in a joint statement, US President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed, crown prince of Abu Dhabi on Thursday announced that Israel and the United Arab Emirates have agreed to normalise relations. As per White House officials, Israel, under the agreement has agreed to suspend applying sovereignty to large parts of the occupied West Bank that it has been discussing annexing. 

Additionally, the White House said the peace deal was the product of lengthy discussions between Israel, the UAE, and the United States that accelerated recently. Further, White House officials also told Reuters that the agreement was clinched on a phone call between Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed, crown prince of Abu Dhabi.

In response to President Donald Trump, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu retweeted the US President's tweet and called it a 'Historic Day'. 

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Furthermore, Israel's ambassador in Washington, Ron Dermer stated that Israel commends the courage of MBZ (de facto UAE leader Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan) for the historic decision of the UAE to join Egypt (1979) and Jordan (1994) in making peace with Israel.

As per the statement, Israeli and UAE delegations will meet in the coming weeks to sign bilateral agreements. Both countries are also expected to exchange ambassadors and embassies. 

This development also makes UAE the first Gulf Arab state to do so and only the third Arab nation to have active diplomatic ties to Israel. Until now, Gulf countries had no diplomatic relations with Israel. 

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