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UAE minister praises cooperation with Israel and Lapid’s call for two-state solution

September 28, 2022 at 4:06 pm

Israels Foreign Minister Yair Lapid (L) welcomes the United Arab Emirates’ Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan on March 27, 2022 [JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images]

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in the UAE, Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed, has praised his country’s “fruitful” relations with Israel and regards them as an example of the benefits of peace, the official UAE news agency WAM has reported. Bin Zayed made his comment yesterday during a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid.

The UAE minister thanked Lapid for the warm welcome during his recent visit at the head of an official delegation to Israel, which coincided with the celebration of the second anniversary of the so-called Abraham Accords. He stressed “the ability to work together for a prosperous future.”

During the visit, the Emirati minister met Lapid and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; Israeli President Yitzhak Herzog; and Defence Minister Benny Gantz. He also visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum. The museum is built less than a mile away from the ruins of Deir Yassin, the site of a notorious massacre of Palestinians by Zionist terrorists in 1948.

Bin Zayed also praised Lapid’s statement at the UN General Assembly in New York about the importance of peace for the people in the Middle East and the two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians to enjoy security and stability. “An agreement with the Palestinians, based on two states for two peoples, is the right thing for Israel’s security, for Israel’s economy and for the future of our children,” Lapid told the UN.

READ: UAE FM arrives in Israel, marking 2 years of Abraham Accords

However, he did not specify the borders of this state, which the Palestinians insist must be based on the 1949 Armistice (“Green”) Line as it was when Israel occupied the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza Strip in 1967. An exchange of territory is also expected to cater for certain facts on the ground in both Israel and the occupied West Bank. Moreover, the Palestinians expect East Jerusalem to be the capital of their independent state, whereas Israel regards the city to be its “undivided” capital.

The UAE delegation visited Israel for the second anniversary of the normalisation of relations with Israel, but for Bin Zayed this was his second visit to the apartheid state. He was also there in late March to attend the Negev Summit, alongside the foreign ministers of Bahrain and Morocco, as well as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The UAE normalise ties with Israel - Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]

The UAE normalise ties with Israel – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]