The United Arab Emirates has been mostly quiet since the Gaza war began, but yesterday, it erupted in response to Israeli talk of annexing the West Bank. “Annexation in the West Bank would constitute a red line for the U.A.E.,” said Foreign Ministry Assistant Minister for Political Affairs Lana Nusseibeh in a statement, reported Middle East Eye. “It would severely undermine the vision and spirit of the [Abraham] Accords.”
Israel’s genocide in Gaza has created tensions between it and other Arab states, but the U.A.E. has preserved ties with Israel, MEE notes. As one example of this that MEE cites, the U.A.E.’s Ambassador to the U.S. Yousef al-Otaiba has said on the record that Abu Dhabi saw no “alternative” to U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan, announced in February, to forcibly displace Palestinians from Gaza.
However, MEE continues, there are some signs that the U.A.E. is growing frustrated with Israel. An analyst familiar with the thinking of Emirati officials told MEE that the U.A.E. was upset by Israel’s unilateral attack on Iran earlier this year. Whereas the U.A.E. has long been at odds with Hamas, it has tried to influence the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited governance in the occupied West Bank.
In a paper that has circulated widely among diplomats in the region and the U.S., Emirati analyst Mohammed Baharoon said that Gulf states “fear Israel is becoming [a] Goliath.”
“Where once Israel might have been viewed as David battling a Goliath-like Arab world, today the roles appear reversed. Israel, empowered by unchecked military might and unwavering U.S. support, is increasingly seen not just as a regional power but as a U.S.-backed regional hegemon,” the paper said. It warned that Gulf leaders are reassessing the Abraham Accords, because “long-standing assumptions about American deterrence and Israeli restraint” had been shattered by the war on Gaza and Israeli attacks on Lebanon, Syria, and Iran. The paper said: “Gulf leaders are reassessing the Abraham Accords. Originally pitched as a framework for promoting peace and stability, the accords now risk legitimising Israeli regional supremacy.”
