The Abraham Accords Peace Agreement or more commonly known as the Israeli-United Arab Emirates normalization agreement was jointly agreed by both states in August 2020. This makes the United Arab Emirates the third Arab country and the first Persian Gulf country to formally work towards the betterment of relations with the state of Israel after Egypt and Jordan in 1979 and 1994 respectively.
This agreement aims to normalize the long-standing tensions of foreign relations between the two states. After this agreement, Israel not only suspended its scheme to annex parts of the West Bank but also unanimously approved the agreement on 12th October 2020 and the Knesset signed it on 15th October 2020. The UAE cabinet and parliament ratified it just three days after, on 19th October 2020.
Last year August, the Israeli foreign minister spoke about military cooperation with UAE in a public statement due to their rising tensions with Iran. In August 2020, exactly a year later Israel and UAE for the very first time unblocked their telephone lines and established direct telephone links. Not only this, but they also had their first commercial flight from Israel to UAE in August and the first ship carrying cargo from the United Arab Emirates to Israel in October.
A vast majority of the Israeli population did vote for the agreement to normalize its relations with the United Arab Emirates, however, the agreement is not signed with the aim of only peaceful coexistence but has other political motives. The agreement mentions the inclusion of international law and the UN resolution on ‘international agreement’ but doesn’t mention anywhere about resolution 2334 on the illegality of Israeli settlements. Israel continues to do annexations on the ground, demolishing Palestinian homes to enlarge its settlements and disregards and creates a mirage of regional peace, security, and equality of the Palestinians.
