MBS Snubs Netanyahu

Top Analyst: Israel ‘Embarrassed’ UAE, No Other Arab State to Normalize Ties

Date: 23 May 2023 - 22:44

News ID: ۱۱۵۳۴۷

DUBAI (Dispatches) – After the UAE was “embarrassed” by the Zionist regime, no further Arab state is likely to normalize relations with Tel Aviv, a senior Emirati policy analyst is reported as saying at the Herzliya Conference at Israel’s Reichman University.
“The latest cabinet in Israel will not kill the Abraham Accords, the signatories will not pull out, but we will not have other signatories,” said Dr. Ebtesam al-Ketbi, the founder and president of the Emirates Policy Center. “The latest cabinet is putting everybody off.”
Haaretz reported that al-Ketbi continued by commenting on the humiliation inflicted on the UAE by the Zionist regime. “My government and the other signatories are embarrassed in front of the Arab people, and they have to say something. And they want a solution for that because they invested heavily in the Abraham Accords. It’s a big loss for Israel when the Saudis side with Iran.”
Since the UAE normalized relations with the apartheid regime in 2020, the occupying regime has continued to entrench its illegal occupation of Palestine and gone on to elect the most far-right cabinet in its history of far-right administrations.
Preventing the occupying regime from annexing the West Bank was one of the reasons cited by the UAE to justify its decision to normalize ties with the regime. Instead of pausing annexation, though, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has handed control of the occupied West Bank to extreme far-right members of his coalition.
Meanwhile, a foreign diplomatic source says there has been no progress in the normalization of diplomatic ties between the Tel Aviv regime and Saudi Arabia, as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) has rejected a request from Netanyahu to meet.
Netanyahu and bin Salman spoke on the phone twice in recent weeks. Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani facilitated the calls.
The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, the 73-year-old Israeli leader and Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler held talks before and after last week’s Arab League meeting in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah to discuss the possibility of rapprochement.
The leaders also did not discuss the possibility of direct flights from the Israeli-occupied territories to Saudi Arabia for the annual pilgrimage Hajj to the holy city of Mecca this year.
According to the N12 news site, Saudi authorities presented a list of demands for Israeli concessions vis-à-vis the Palestinians.
Those demands include allowing the Palestinian security apparatus to be strengthened at the expense of Zionist troops in the occupied West Bank, the report said.
MBS also requested Palestinian security control over Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the occupied Old City of Al-Quds.