A senior Emirati government official this week urged Israeli lawmakers to work together to further the expansion of the Abraham Accords as a foil against Islamic extremism in the region.
The direct remarks made in an unusual video address to the Israeli parliament were indicative of the strong ties that bind Israel and the UAE, and came on the heels of the symbolic move by the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan to join the landmark 2020 peace deal, which saw four Arab countries led by the UAE make peace with Israel under the first Trump administration.
“We both face the same challenges,” Ali Rashid Al Nuaimi, chairman of the Federal National Council’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, told Knesset members Monday in a video address.
“So it is our responsibility not only to issue statements and to attend conferences but actually to engage in bringing more friends regionally and globally to support the Abraham Accords and promote peace and to counter the ideology of those enemies that want to divide us and undermine our efforts to have peace and prosperity for everybody in the whole region,” he added.
Al Nuaimi, who played a key role in UAE-Israel normalization five years ago and has been a stalwart supporter of the Abraham Accords, urged the Israeli parliamentarians to work to create a much-needed “narrative of peace.”
He noted that a normalization agreement is not “a peace accord but a piece of paper” and that” bridges of trust, understanding and respect” were needed to counter the hate and antisemitism of the Muslim Brotherhood which worked to undermine the agreement.
“We must work together towards a sustainable peace and not fall into the traps of extremists who want to divide us and impose their agenda,” he said.
The senior Emirati official made headlines when he came to Israel last year to pay a condolence call to the family of the Chabad emissary who was murdered by Iranian-backed terrorists in the UAE in a rare attack that shook the Gulf country.
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel, who met with Al Nuaimi during a September visit to Abu Dhabi marking five years since the Abraham Accords, said that the peace accords will be expanded in the coming years with additional Muslim countries reaching peace agreements with the Jewish state, amid growing ties with Gulf countries.
U.S. President Donald Trump has said that he expects Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords by the end of the year, although Riyadh has conditioned such a move on a pathway to a Palestinian state, which is widely opposed in Israel.
