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Israel-UAE pact
Why is it in news?
- S. President Donald Trump announced that Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had reached a peace agreement.
About Israel-UAE pact:
- The UAE and Israel would establish formal diplomatic relations and in exchange, Israel would suspend its plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank.
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had earlier vowed to annex the Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
- The Trump administration, as part of the President’s peace plan announced in January, had backed the annexation plan despite international criticism.
- But now, as part of the agreement, Israel will suspend declaring sovereignty over areas of the West Bank and focus its efforts on expanding ties with other countries in the Arab and Muslim world.
Significance:
- It’s a landmark agreement given that the UAE is only the third Arab country and the first in the Gulf region to establish diplomatic relations with Israel.
- Arab-Israeli ties have historically been conflict-ridden. Arab countries, including Egypt, Transjordan, Syria and Iraq, fought their first war with Israel in 1948 after the formation of the state of Israel was announced.