UAE warns Israel: Annexing West Financial institution is a ‘crimson line' that may 'finish regional integration'

[ad_1] ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — A high United Arab Emirates official warned Israel on Tuesday that annexing the West Financial institution would cross a “crimson line” that may “finish the imaginative and prescient of regional integration,” simply two days earlier than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was slated to carry a significant ministerial session on whether or not to advance the extremely controversial transfer.

“Annexation could be a crimson line for my authorities, and meaning there might be no lasting peace. It could foreclose the thought of regional integration and be the loss of life knell of the two-state resolution,” Emirati particular envoy Lana Nusseibeh instructed The Instances of Israel in an interview carried out within the UAE Ministry of International Affairs in Abu Dhabi.

It was a surprising alarm bell from Abu Dhabi forward of the fifth anniversary of the Abraham Accords, which the UAE initiated by turning into the primary Arab nation to normalize relations with Israel in over a quarter-century.

Since then, Emirati officers have insisted that the transfer was an all-but-irreversible strategic choice , making Nusseibeh’s warning significantly dramatic, because it highlighted how averse the Gulf nation is to Israel once more contemplating annexation.

For each Arab capital you speak to, the thought of regional integration continues to be a chance, however annexation to fulfill a number of the radical extremist components in Israel goes to take that off the desk

Get The Instances of Israel's Every day Version by electronic mail and by no means miss our high tales

By signing up, you comply with the terms The fastidiously crafted Emirati message concerning the potential “strategic loss” was voiced on the document for the primary time for the reason that Abraham Accords have been signed. It got here as Netanyahu geared as much as talk about the matter of annexation with a small group of ministers on Thursday, in response to the plans of a number of main Western nations to acknowledge a Palestinian state on the United Nations Common Meeting later this month, an Israeli official instructed The Instances of Israel.

The choice to talk on to an Israeli viewers harked again to an op-ed UAE Ambassador to america Yousef Otaiba had revealed on the entrance web page of a high Israeli newspaper simply two months earlier than the 2 nations signed a normalization settlement.

UAE Ambassador to the United Nations Lana Nusseibeh talks throughout an interactive dialogue titled ”Current on the Disruption: The UAE’s First 12 months on the UN Safety Council”, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Jan. 4, 2023. (AP Photograph/Kamran Jebreili)

Then too, Abu Dhabi laid out a alternative for Israelis as a earlier Netanyahu authorities threatened to annex giant components of the West Financial institution inside weeks.

“Just lately, Israeli leaders have promoted excited speak about normalization of relations with the UAE and different Arab states. However Israeli plans for annexation and speak of normalization are a contradiction,” Otaiba wrote in June 2020.

The op-ed proved critical in laying the groundwork for the Abraham Accords, resonating overwhelmingly with Israelis — 80 percent of whom have been proven to again forgoing annexation in favor of a normalization deal.

https://static-cdn.toi-media.com/www/uploads/2025/09/final.m4a Netanyahu in the end walked again from the annexation risk in trade for diplomatic ties with Abu Dhabi in a deal brokered by US President Donald Trump’s first administration.

However The Instances of Israel later revealed that the UAE solely secured a US dedication to not again Israeli annexation till the tip of Trump’s time period.

Apparently recognizing the transfer would carry much less weight with out US backing, Netanyahu hasn’t gone forward with it since.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks earlier than a map of the Jordan Valley, vowing to increase Israeli sovereignty there if reelected, throughout a speech in Ramat Gan on September 10, 2019. (Menahem Kahana/AFP)

The US dedication’s expiration coincided with the beginning of the Biden administration, which restored conventional US coverage in favor of a two-state resolution and adamantly in opposition to annexation.

With Trump now again in workplace, although, Netanyahu’s far-right coalition companions are more and more adamant {that a} potential historic window has opened to declare Israeli sovereignty over West Financial institution settlements, provided that the brand new administration seems both indifferent or supportive of the transfer.

These hardliners have recognized the just lately introduced plans of France, the UK, Canada, Australia and Belgium to acknowledge a Palestinian state as a singular alternative to lastly annex the West Financial institution, as Jerusalem weighs its response to the unilateral steps, which it deems a “reward” for Hamas’s October 7 onslaught. On Wednesday, certainly, Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich issued a proposal to annex 82% of the West Financial institution, and urged Netanyahu to undertake it.

Accordingly, Nusseibeh additionally voiced a not-so-subtle message directed on the Trump administration, with which her authorities has shortly cultivated a detailed relationship.

We belief that President Trump won't permit the Abraham Accords tenet of his legacy to be tarnished, threatened or derailed by extremists and radicals

“We consider that President Trump and his administration have most of the levers to steer the initiative for a wider integration of Israel into the area,” mentioned the Emirati official, who serves as assistant minister for political affairs and particular envoy for UAE International Minister Abdullah bin Zayed.

Nusseibeh most just lately was the UAE’s ambassador to the UN. She is seen as a very influential Emirati diplomat with shut ties to the royal household.

UAE Ambassador to the US Yousef Otaiba (L) attends a enterprise discussion board within the presence of the US president in Abu Dhabi on Might 16, 2025. Trump capped his Gulf tour in Abu Dhabi after signing one other raft of multi-billion-dollar offers, whereas additionally securing a $1.4 trillion funding pledge from the UAE. (Photograph by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP)

“We belief that President Trump won't permit the Abraham Accords tenet of his legacy to be tarnished, threatened or derailed by extremists and radicals,” she added.

Like Otaiba, the Emirati particular envoy appeared to attempt to direct her message towards the Israeli public, not the federal government, which polls point out solely has the help of a minority.

Arguing that annexation would successfully quantity to a rejection of the Abraham Accords, Nusseibeh maintained “that alternative ought to be put on to the Israeli individuals.”

UN Ambassadors from Israel Gilad Erdan, from the UAE Lana Nusseibeh, from the US Linda Thomas-Greenfield, from Morocco Omar Hilale, and from Bahrain Jamal Al Rowaiei at a New York occasion marking the one-year anniversary of the signing of the Abraham Accords, September 13, 2021. (Jacob Magid/ Instances of Israel)

Whereas the senior Emirati official warned about what Israel stood to lose if it proceeded with annexation, she additionally made a degree of highlighting what Jerusalem may achieve if it once more shelved the plan.

Arab nations, together with Saudi Arabia, are nonetheless open to normalizing ties with Jerusalem, she indicated.

However they're conditioning such a transfer not simply on the withdrawal of annexation plans however on Israel agreeing to ascertain a reputable, irreversible pathway to a future Palestinian state. Nonetheless, they haven’t foreclosed the thought solely, regardless of huge opposition to Israel’s prosecution of its practically two-year warfare in opposition to Hamas.

Palestinian artists draw murals depicting the Dome of the Rock and the West Financial institution as a part of an consciousness marketing campaign in opposition to Israel’s West Financial institution annexation plans, in Rafah within the southern Gaza Strip, on July 1, 2020 (SAID KHATIB / AFP)

“For each Arab capital you speak to, the thought of regional integration continues to be a chance, however annexation to fulfill a number of the radical extremist components in Israel goes to take that off the desk,” Nusseibeh mentioned.

She asserted that Abu Dhabi didn't come to this conclusion evenly.

“When Hamas tried to derail the Abraham Accords imaginative and prescient of regional integration with the October 7 terror assaults, we have been agency in our response,” the particular envoy mentioned, highlighting the UAE’s fast condemnation of the assault and recognition of Israel’s safety issues, whereas additionally “intently coordinating” to ship extra assist to Gaza than some other nation.

“Over the past two years… our view was that the imaginative and prescient of the Abraham Accords stays pertinent — which you could’t let extremists set the trajectory of the area,” she mentioned.

Everlasting Consultant of the United Arab Emirates to the United Nations Lana Nusseibeh speaks throughout a Safety Council assembly at United Nations headquarters, December 22, 2023. (Yuki Iwamura/AP)

However with Israel taking more and more far-reaching steps to entrench its presence within the West Financial institution and Gaza, she mentioned, “we're nervous that every one of us within the Center East are transferring towards a degree of no return” and that now's the time to succeed in out to Israelis earlier than efforts to take care of Israel’s ties to regional companions are “irreparably broken.”

“The Abraham Accords’ tenets of prosperity, coexistence, tolerance, integration and stability” have “by no means appeared extra below risk than [they are] as we speak,” she mentioned.

Nusseibeh assured Israelis that an off-ramp exists. “There may be an outstretched hand, regardless of all of this distress, within the area to Israel. However, “annexation would withdraw that hand,” she mentioned.

!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s) {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)}; if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0'; n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script', 'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js'); fbq('init', '272776440645465'); fbq('track', 'PageView'); [ad_2] Source link