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Lower than 48 hours after Israeli President Isaac Herzog and his spouse arrived on the airport in Abu Dhabi, the historic mission already felt considerably completed.
The symbolic journey marked the primary time an Israeli president visited the United Arab Emirates — and pictures of the Israeli flag being hoisted on Emirati soil signaled heat diplomatic tidings between the 2 international locations.
Within the Center East, nevertheless, the established order stays in the case of geopolitical maneuvers within the competitors for regional hegemony. Not lengthy after Herzog’s arrival, breaking information hit the headlines: The Houthi motion in Yemen had fired a ballistic missile towards the UAE. The Emirati Protection Ministry stated it intercepted and destroyed the missile.
And here is why the failed missile assault will not be seen as a coincidence: The Houthis are backed by Iran — the mutual arch-enemy of each the UAE and Israel. In 2015, the UAE joined forces with the Saudi-led coalition preventing the Houthi motion in Yemen — a battle and humanitarian disaster that also rages at the moment.
Regardless of the sudden change in environment on Monday, Isaac Herzog did not disappoint his host. “We’re right here collectively to seek out methods and means to carry full safety to individuals who search peace in our area,” the Israeli president assured Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in keeping with the Israeli authorities press workplace.
The 2 international locations, as soon as nominal enemies, turned official allies some 16 months in the past, when the international ministers of the UAE and Bahrain, in addition to Israel’s then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, signed a peace settlement that normalized diplomatic ties between their international locations. The Abraham Accords, because the assertion grew to become identified, was a landmark achievement below then-US President Donald Trump.
However whereas diplomatic relations between Israel and the UAE have considerably elevated, different allied international locations like Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan are transferring at a a lot slower tempo.
The Emirati and Israeli flags fly overhead as Israeli President Isaac Herzog provides a speech at Expo 2020 in Dubai
Improve in commerce and journey
The primary driver for the quick monitor of their ties is that the UAE and Israel are comparable by way of financial dimension and improvement.
“They each have a gross home product (GDP) of round $400 billion (€356 billion) and their comparatively small populations take pleasure in a excessive residing normal measured in per capita revenue,” stated Atradius, a commerce credit score insurance coverage firm.
“It’s a brief time because the accords have been introduced, and already our commerce has topped NIS 1 billion (round $315 million, €280 million), greater than 120 agreements have been signed,” Herzog stated on the Israeli pavilion on the Dubai 2020 expo, including {that a} multimillion-dollar analysis and improvement fund was additionally established.
Compared to 2020, Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics recorded greater than a 30% improve in import and export of products, excluding diamonds, to and from the United Arab Emirates.
Whereas in Dubai, Herzog additionally highlighted that “Israelis and Emiratis are learning collectively and studying one another’s cultures and languages.”
Up to now, round 250,000 Israelis have visited the Emirates. Israel’s strict coverage combatting the COVID-19 pandemic, together with closing the principle airport, nevertheless, has impacted Emirati arrivals.
“We await many Emiratis touring to Israel following COVID,” Herzog stated.
Additional areas of collaboration between the UAE and Israel are sustainability, analysis and improvement, agriculture, medication and monetary applied sciences.
“Local weather change, particularly, is a problem that every one states on this area are going through. And the one solution to take care of it’s to work collectively,” stated Sebastian Sons, an knowledgeable on the area on the Germany-based Middle for Utilized Analysis in Partnership with the Orient (CARPO).
“Israel is technologically probably the most developed participant within the area and due to this fact a profitable collaboration companion,” he instructed DW in a phone interview.
Sons additionally identified that international locations that have not signed diplomatic papers with Israel, resembling Oman or Saudi Arabia, would profit from tackling local weather change along with Israel. “From a technological standpoint, they want Israel and can’t meet these challenges alone,” he stated.
A particular case
Of all international locations within the Center East, Saudi Arabia might be probably the most sought-after ally for Israel — but on the similar time, it is usually probably the most controversial.
“Saudi Arabia could be the large prize for Israel,” Yoel Guzansky, a senior analysis fellow on the Tel Aviv-based Institute for Nationwide Safety Research (INSS), instructed DW in a cellphone interview.
For a few years, the Saudis have been sustaining relations with Israel, albeit not official ones.
In 2020, then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) signed the Abraham Accords in Washington alongside President Donald Trump and UAE International Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan
“Israelis would like to have the ‘kosher stamp’ of Saudi Arabia because the chief of Sunni Islam and custodian of the Holy Locations,” Guzansky stated.
Nonetheless, there are nonetheless many sensitivities, resembling differing opinions on Palestine and a two-state answer.
On the similar time, Guzansky additionally sees many parallels, resembling comparable challenges together with their battle with Yemen and staunch dislike for Iran. “It could be sensible to supply them assist now, as they may keep in mind this. They want somebody within the area, and this somebody may very well be Israel,” he instructed DW.
And but, there appears an extended solution to go.
“Normalization is unlikely as a result of Saudi Arabia has a lot stronger anti-Israeli circles, together with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud,” stated Sons.
Any try to acknowledge Israel could be towards the Saudi raison d’état.
Nonetheless, in keeping with Israeli stories, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and former Israeli chief Netanyahu already had a number of unofficial talks lately. Due to this fact, the analyst believes that within the future there may also be “cooperation within the army, financial or vitality sphere will intensify.”
One of many reported unofficial agreements between Saudi Arabia and Israel was really essential for the presidential go to within the UAE.
Israeli President Herzog and the primary girl have been capable of fly over Saudi Arabia, as Riyadh has been allowing the Israel plane entry to its airspace.
Edited by: Stephanie Burnett
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