President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that a historic peace agreement had been reached between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, scoring another major foreign policy victory for the Trump Administration, as reported by the New York Times.
The deal will include “full normalization of relations” between Israel and the predominantly Muslim Emirates, and will include greater cooperation between the two nations on such matters as tourism, energy, security, technology, investment, and other areas. Immediate reconciliations will take place soon on more everyday matters such as direct flights between the two countries, as well as the opening of embassies and the appointment of trade ambassadors. In exchange, Israel agreed to suspend its latest efforts at the annexation of the West Bank region.
President Trump made the announcement from the Oval Office, in a three-way teleconference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Emirati prince Mohammed bin Zayed. The deal would be the first successful peace agreement between Israel and an Arab nation in almost 30 years and makes the UAE only the third such nation to normalize relations with Israel, after Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994.
President Trump described the deal as “a significant step towards building a more peaceful, secure, and prosperous Middle East. Now that the ice has been broken, I expect more Arab and Muslim countries will follow the United Arab Emirates’ lead.”
There were already early reports following the agreement that several other countries, such as Oman and Bahrain, may follow the Emirates’ lead and pursue similar peace agreements with Israel.