Israeli minister insults UAE as Arab-Israeli deal heats up

Iseral’s transportation Minister Miri Regev takes aim at united arab emirates A barb has her colleagues scrambling to protect ties with one of Israel’s most important Gulf Arab partners.

“I’ve been to Dubai,” Regev said Wednesday. “I’m not going back. I don’t like this place.”

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Israeli officials tout official and private trips to UAE as first results abraham agreement. Regev juxtaposed this expression of disgust with praise for the UAE’s infrastructure, a combination that set the stage for her subsequent claim that she was joking, but Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen took the comment seriously and used his own feelings for the UAE statement to refute it the Arab capital.

“I [love] Dubai, and so did the million Israelis who visited the UAE last year,” he tweeted.

Maya Alleruzzo/AP

Cohen added an emoji symbolizing peace between Israel and the UAE.The Gulf Arab states are key to signing the 2020 Abraham Accords, which established diplomatic ties between the UAE and the two countries Bahrain. The agreement now also includes Sudan and morocco, the foreign policy crown jewel of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before he loses power in 2021. However, Israel’s relations with its Arab neighbors have suffered a series of blows in recent weeks, in part due to the return of far-right members of the coalition supporting Netanyahu to the prime minister’s office.

“Israel and the UAE maintain a fruitful political relationship in various fields, including today,” Netanyahu’s office said on March 12.

The statement contradicted a report that Emirati officials had warned Jerusalem that the actions of Netanyahu’s coalition were hindering cooperation between the two capitals.

“Until we can be sure that Prime Minister Netanyahu has a government that he can control, we will not be able to function together,” said UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed. Tell According to Israeli officials jerusalem post.

If Netanyahu’s team disputes that statement, the bitter spat that ensued would unfold in the open. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who visited the United States and France during his transatlantic trip but did not meet representatives of the two governments, declared that “there are no Palestinians because there are no Palestinian people” while boasting that “God is gathering his people “Enter the Jewish State.

“There are Arabs around who don’t like it, so what do they do? They make up a fictional nation and claim a fictional right to the land of Israel just to fight the Zionist movement,” Smotridge explain in Paris. “The Arabs in Israel have to hear it, and certain confused Jews in Israel — this truth has to be heard here at the Elysee Palace and in the White House in Washington, and everyone has to hear this truth.”

Smotridge made the statement from a podium adorned with a map of “Greater Israel,” an image that suggests Israel’s legal borders should include the neighboring monarchy of Jordan as well as parts of Syria.

“Mr. Smotridge’s latest comments from a podium adorned with inaccurate and provocative maps are offensive, deeply worrying and, frankly, dangerous,” State Department spokesman Vedante Parr Terr said on Tuesday.

Jordanian officials have accused Smotridge of “reckless incitement in violation of international norms and the Jordanian peace treaty”. Emirati officials also disagreed.

“The UAE condemns Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s statement denying the existence of the Palestinian people,” the UAE foreign ministry responded. “The UAE also condemns his use of a map of Israel, which includes lands from the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”

The foreign policy controversies come against the backdrop of intense domestic debate over a judicial reform law that Israeli opposition leaders say seeks to preserve Netanyahu’s political control of the judiciary.Overhaul is support Presented by Smotrich trade to secure his participation in a coalition government that would give Netanyahu a parliamentary majority.

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Netanyahu’s team, as well as Israel’s foreign ministry, rushed to confirm that “Israel is committed to adhering to the 1994 peace agreement with Jordan.” Regev posted on social media after Wednesday’s speech that she had accepted the invitation to travel to Dubai, And accused the media of mischaracterizing her comments.

“A few minutes ago, I spoke to my friend, the UAE ambassador, Mohammed al-Khaja. He also understood what the media wanted to do, take it out of context,” she said. “Attempts to spark conflict between [the two] The country becomes an invitation to visit again. “