by Saud Abu Ramadan, Emad Drimly
RAMALLAH, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The American-sponsored peace agreement reached between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was a breakthrough in the Arab-Israeli relationships, but still provoked and outraged the Palestinians, according to local analysts.
A joint statement said that United States President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan announced reaching the agreement. They said it is a full peace agreement based on direct bilateral relations.
PALESTINIAN REACTION
Right after the three-way announcement, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas chaired an emergency meeting for Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and expressed severe rejection and condemnation of the agreement.
"The agreement blew up the Arab Peace Initiative, the decisions of the Arab League and the Islamic organizations and the international resolutions," the Palestinian leadership said in a press statement.
The statement added that the agreement between Israel and the UAE "is an aggression on the Palestinian people and an abandoning of the Palestinian rights and holy places, mainly Jerusalem and the establishment of the independent state of Palestine on 1967 borders."
Hani al-Masri, director of Masarat Center for Researches and Studies in Ramallah, told Xinhua that the agreement "represents a gift for free to the occupation (Israel)."
"A full normalization in the relations between the two countries for suspending the plan of annexing Palestinian land and not annulling it means nothing because it will lead to the implementation of Trump's vision," al-Masri said.
The prominent Palestinian think-tank noted that a few hours after declaring the agreement, "Netanyahu insisted that his annexation plan is still on the table and Israel will not cancel it."
In 2002, an Arab League Summit held in Beirut, issued the Arab Peace Initiative in the Middle East under the proposal of Saudi Arabia to resolve the Palestinian cause and the conflict with Israel.
Under the initiative, normalization between Israel, Arab and Islamic states only permitted after Israel withdraws from all the Arab and Palestinian occupied territories.
TIES DEVELOPMENT
Ties between Israel and the UAE had witnessed gradual development levels throughout different stations, and the most significant one was in 2019.
In 2015, Israel's Foreign Ministry announced that it inaugurated a diplomatic representation in Abu Dhabi, while the UAE's Foreign Ministry announced that any agreement with Israel wouldn't change the UAE's positions and ties with Israel.
In July 2019, Israeli former Foreign Minister Israel Katz, currently minister of finance, joined the United Nations Conference for Environmental Affairs in Abu Dhabi, met with senior UAE officials, and presented an initiative for regional peace.
Following the significant developments in the ties between the two countries, Israeli analysts said that "the leaders of the UAE became willingness to exit relations with Israel from secrecy to open and opening an Israeli embassy in Abu Dhabi is not a dream anymore."
Last March, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Anwar Gargash, called for speeding up the pace of normalization between the Arab countries and Israel, believing that this would help solve the Arab-Israeli conflict.
MUTUAL BENEFITS
The UAE hopes that the declared agreement with Israel will be one of the means to free the Israeli annexation plan, in which the Palestinians say that the plan would undermine the opportunities of establishing a viable independent state.
The crown prince of Abu Dhabi tweeted the UAE agreed with Israel on putting a roadmap to inaugurate cooperation that will lead to bilateral relations.
On the level of bilateral ties between Israel and the UAE, the agreement will widely open the door for boosting its relationships with other Arab countries and establish economic relations and official cooperation.
Netanyahu had repeatedly said that Israel keeps good secret ties with many Arab countries, such as Bahrain and Oman, where the agreement with the UAE will turn the hidden relationships into open ones.
Officially, the UAE is the fourth Arab country that signed peace agreements with Israel, where Egypt signed a peace agreement with Israel in 1979, Jordan signed a peace agreement in 1994 and Palestine signed a peace agreement in 1993.
Jared Kushner, an adviser to Trump and his son-in-law, said the agreement between Israel and the UAE was "historic," expressing hope that other Arab countries would follow the UAE's steps. Enditem
