CFI Executive Director James Gurd welcomed the normalisation of ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and underlined that the deal demonstrates that the views of many on the Middle East are out of date, in an article published on Conservative Home today.
Mr Gurd said that last week’s announcement “represents the most significant development between Israel and its Arab neighbours since Jordan’s peace agreement with Israel in 1994 and, if fulfilled, it will become only the third Arab nation to establish full diplomatic relations with the Jewish State”.
He emphasised: “Unthinkable to many, the momentous announcement has in fact been in the offing for some time”.
In reference to some of the shifting interests and alliances in the region, Mr Gurd wrote: “The rules of the ‘old Middle East’ have been changing for over a decade. The great Arab nations have seen an increasing number of high-profile Israeli delegations travelling through. Discreet at first, these visits have become increasingly regular and overt, with Benjamin Netanyahu officially visiting Oman in 2018, and Saudi news publishing an unprecedented 2017 interview with Israel’s IDF Chief of Staff, Gadi Eisenkot, in which he publicly offered to share intelligence on Iran”.
He added: “The Israeli media is now awash with speculation over the possibility of further regional states moving towards formal ties with Israel. While Bahrain and Oman are presented as the prime candidates, Sudan is a possibility, and formal ties with Saudi Arabia are no longer unimaginable”.
The announcement, in its “decisive movement away from historic Arab-Israeli enmity offers an opportunity to revive the moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace process”, Mr Gurd wrote. He continued: “While the Palestinian Authority was predictably quick to denounce last week’s announcement as a betrayal, many Arab capitals are understood to be growing weary of the intransigence that has seen off multiple viable peace deals”.
Mr Gurd emphasised: “Under consecutive Conservative Governments, the UK has been deepening its own ties with Israel – with record trade, deep security links, and even historic first official visits to the Jewish State by the Duke of Cambridge and Prince of Wales”. He urged that the UK should take the lead in encouraging trade and security initiatives: “As Arab states move towards publicly recognising Israel as a valuable regional ally, and given our shared concerns over Iran and Islamist terrorism, the UK should use its historical links to encourage the change and maximise the ample opportunities for new regional trade and security initiatives”.
Read the article here.
