Trump Called on UAE Crown Prince to ‘Encourage Other Arab States to Normalize with Israel’
US President Donald Trump asked UAE Crown Prince, Mohammad Bin Zayed, to encourage other Arab nations to normalize relations with Israel, Arab48 reported on Monday.
Citing a statement attributed to Judd Deere, deputy assistant to Trump and White House deputy press secretary, the report said Trump and Bin Zayed, colloquially known by his initials as MBZ, spoke in a recent phone call.
Deere reportedly said that Trump asked MBZ to encourage other countries in the Middle East to follow suit after the UAE signed a normalisation deal with Israel.
Hours after speaking with US President Donald #Trump, Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince discusses “prospects for peace” in the region with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin #Netanyahu.https://t.co/1V88a1H0KM
— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) October 12, 2020
MBZ congratulated Trump on his recovery from coronavirus infection, the report cited Deere as saying, while Trump thanked him for his “leadership” role in talks with Israel, which also lead to an agreement signed between the Jewish state and Bahrain.
The US has also pressured Sudan to normalize ties with Israel by offering to remove the former from US terror list in return.
In comments on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said MBZ is set to “visit soon” in what follows a so-called historic normalisation deal signed between the UAE and Israel on September 15 – a move that has angered Palestinians.
Another Acre, Another Goat: #Israel in the #MiddleEast https://t.co/HZLnK2Uilm via @PalestineChron pic.twitter.com/WyZCfFaHzP
— @palestinechron (@PalestineChron) October 3, 2020
The country of Bahrain became the latest Arab nation to normalize ties with Israel, less than a month following a similar decision by the United Arab Emirates.
The Bahraini decision, which was announced by US President Donald Trump on Friday was made despite repeated assurances that Manama will not extend diplomatic ties with Israel until Palestinians obtain their rights in accordance with international law.
The Bahrain-Israel agreement came as another shock to Palestinians who still didn’t recover from the news of the UAE-Israel normalization.
(Palestine Chronicle, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, Social Media)