UAE’s embassy in Israel to be set up in Tel Aviv

As the UAE and Israel move forward with forging partnerships after the normalisation of relations, the UAE will have its embassy in Tel Aviv and not Jersusalem, which Israel had declared as its capital, said Dr. Anwar Gargash, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, on August 20.

Speaking at an event hosted by the US Atlantic Council think tank, Gargash said that “several Arab countries” are on the path of normalizing ties with Israel. The region needs a strategic breakthrough, he said.

“We are committed… as part of the international consensus on the two-state solution, and any embassy will be in Tel Aviv. So that is quite clear,” the minister said during the virtual session with the Atlantic Council Front Page. “The whole idea of suspending annexation, giving space and opportunity for negotiating the two-state solution, you know… it is evident where our embassy will be.”

The US is one of the few countries that has recognised Jerusalem as the Israel’s capital and moved its embassy there in 2017. President Trump at a campaign rally on August 17 said he did it for the evangelicals in the US.

Regarding the UAE’s role in finalising a peace deal between Israel and Palestine, Dr. Gargash said: “We don’t negotiate on behalf of the Palestinians.” He added the final shape of the emergence of the peace deal will be decided by Palestinians and Israelis. “But we all need to urge the Palestinians to engage and negotiate.”

“The UAE saw an opportunity because we’ve always been urged by the Palestinians to help in stopping annexation. By linking (the agreement) to the suspension of annexation, we came out with a good deal.

“This is going to be a warm peace because, unlike Jordan or Egypt, we have not fought a war with Israel,” Gargash said. Israel signed a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979 and with Jordan in 1994.

Calling the UAE a dynamic Arab country that wants to “break a lot of barriers”, Dr. Gargash said that would not be possible with an “exclusivist view of the world through an Arab prism”.