Ambassador to the US, Yousef Al Otaiba, has written to the Israeli public to lay out the significant impact its government’s annexation of the West Bank and Jordan Valley will have regionally
In the first direct address to the Israeli public, Yousef Al Otaiba, UAE ambassador to the US, on Friday warned that a planned annexation of the occupied West Bank and Jordan Valley would be a major impediment to Israel’s hope of establishing ties with the Arab world.
In an article published in Hebrew by Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth on Friday, Mr Al Otaiba, also a Minister of State, highlighted the risks to regional stability and Israel’s efforts to build ties with Arab states if the government pressed ahead with a plan to extend Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and illegal settlements across the West Bank.
“Annexation will certainly and immediately upend Israeli aspirations for improved security, economic and cultural ties with the Arab world and with UAE,” Mr Al Otaiba wrote.
In recent years there has been significant speculation that the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was making inroads to normalise ties with several Arab states.
But Mr Al Otaiba made it clear that annexation would pour cold water on any such bid.
“Normal is not annexation,” he wrote. “Instead, annexation is a misguided provocation of another order. And continued talk of normalisation would be just mistaken hope for better relations with the Arab states.”
Mr Al Otaiba reiterated that the UAE stood firmly behind a comprehensive, two-state solution with East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
“All the time, we remain an ardent advocate for the Palestinian people and a long-time champion of the Arab Peace Initiative,” he wrote.
Speaking to The National before the publication, Mr Al Otaiba said he thought it was “important to speak directly to the Israeli public”.
“I don’t want there to be any confusion on what our position is. I think it’s important to be public, to be vocal, clear and direct,” he said.
Content retrieved from: https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/israel-annexation-uae-ambassador-warns-of-setbacks-in-first-direct-address-1.1032433.
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