Anwar Gargash, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, has said that Iran’s aggressive policies alarmed many Arab countries and made them look at Israel with “fresh eyes”.
At a virtual briefing on the fringe of the UN General Assembly annual meeting, the senior UAE official said that while this may not have been Iran’s intention, its actions have positively impacted regional dynamics.
He added: “The only thing I want to say is the more strategic the Israelis look at these relationships, the more doors will open to them”. “If they look at it very ‘transactionally’, I think that it is not going to send a very good omen for normalising relations with many of the Arab countries”.
Minister Gargash urged Israel to “look at these opportunities and build strategically, and think long term rather than short term”. He said that the recent UAE-Israel normalisation deal was strategically good for the UAE and will increase the country’s “global presence”.
The UAE and Bahrain signed historic peace agreements with the Jewish State last month at the White House. The UAE Minister said he “would like to say we haven’t lost a single friend” over the deal, but described the Iranian reaction as “very alarming” and said the Palestinians were “sulking” at the moment.
He emphasised the importance of opening “channels of communications because the Arab experience of having no communication with Israel has not really yielded any results”, noting that the UAE and Bahrain’s ties with Israel will “bring a new dynamism” to the peace process.
“The Palestinians right now are angry, but I think they will see the benefit in the medium term”, Minister Gargash said.
Omani Ambassador to the US Hunaina al-Mughairy was among those attending the White House ceremony, amid speculation that Oman could be on the verge of normalising relations with the Jewish state. Deputy Ambassador of Sudan was also present; Sudan, like Oman, does not have ties with Israel.
The normalisation of relations with the UAE and Bahrain follow Israel’s treaties with Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994.
