Monday, December 30, 2019

Netanyahu: Israel to have normal ties and peace deals with Arab countries

(JP) Israel will soon have normal ties and formal peace deals with a number of Arab countries, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised on Sunday night as he spoke at a Likud event in Tel Aviv in which he touted his past diplomatic achievements and promised even more successes.
“I intend in the coming years to conclude normalization and peace agreements with a number of Arab countries,” Netanyahu said. He recalled in specific his 2018 trip to Oman, a country with which Israel has no formal diplomatic relations.

Israel’s informal ties with a number of moderate Arab states have warmed since US President Donald Trump came into office in January 2017, as the US has pushed for normalized relations between Israel and the Arab world. To date Israel has formal peace treaties only with Egypt and Jordan.
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Moderate Arab states have publicly insisted that they will only make peace with Israel once a deal has been reached, (with the Palestinians).
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But a number of them have allowed ties with Israel to improve, with Foreign Minister Israel Katz and Sports and Culture Minister Miri Regev visiting Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
In 2020 Israel will have a pavilion at the World's Fair in Dubai for six months. An Israeli governmental delegation will be in Dubai for those six months, effectively giving the country de-facto representation in the UAE.


During his speech on Sunday night, Netanyahu said that simultaneously to achieving peace deals with Arab countries, he would annex West Bank settlements with US support.

Netanyahu pledged to achieve an historic military pact with the US that would preserve the IDF’s freedom of action in defense of the country. With regard to Syria, Netanyahu said that Israel was working on a daily basis to prevent Iran from entrenching itself militarily in that country.