Middle East

UAE and Bahrain to sign Abraham Accord in Washington


 

 

WASHINGTON: The UAE and Bahrain are set to sign historic agreements with Israel today in a ceremony overseen by Donald Trump in Washington.

The Abraham Accord means the two Gulf countries will join Egypt and Jordan as the only  Arab nations to have full relations with Israel.

The ceremony will be attended by the UAE’s foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani, the foreign minister of Bahrain and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Natanyahu.

The UAE, which announced the deal with Israel last month, is expected to sign a full peace treaty, according to Israeli media. Bahrain only announced on Friday it had reached an agreement with Israel and will sign a “declaration of peace” joint statement.

The three countries will also sign a tripartite agreement, AP reported. The full text of the agreements has not yet been released.


Donald Trump welcomes Bahrain’s foreign minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani at the White House ahead of the signing of the Abraham Accord with Israel. (AFP)

The signing ceremony will take place at 12 p.m. on the South Lawn of the White House – the same place where Israeli and Palestinian leaders signed the Oslo Accords in 1993.

It will be attended by 700 people including former US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and former British premier Tony Blair.

“Normalizing ties between the United Arab Emirates and Israel is a historic diplomatic breakthrough and a hopeful sign that progress in the Middle East is possible,” Sheikh Abdullah wrote in the Wall Street Journal.

“This is an opportunity for a fresh approach to tackling the region’s challenges. In an area and era all too rife with bad news, it elevates opportunity and optimism over conflict and defeatism.”

The UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Anwar Gargash, said the deal had “broken the psychological barrier” and was “the way forward” for the region.

Netanyahu said Israel had “worked on this for many years.”

“This is a massive turning point in the history of Israel, as well as the history of the Middle East,” he said. “It will have a huge an positive impact on all Israelis.”





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