Agreements with Israel offer great opportunities for Arab countries to work together in the region to build a different future, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Foreign Minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), said on Monday at the Negev Summit Forum.
"Egypt and Israel made a peace treaty 43 years ago, we lost those years and now we are trying to catch up," he noted. - "It is absolutely clear that we have enormous potential and opportunities stemming from agreements with Israel, it's time to build a different future and cooperate to defeat terrorism and violence".
According to the minister, 300,000 Israelis visited the UAE last year, and 2 million people visited the Israeli pavilion at the international Expo in Dubai.
"We have tremendous potential, Egypt is showing us leadership in this, and we regret the years that passed without achieving peace," he pointed out, noting that the "summit" in the Negev is "a historic moment for its participants and an opportunity to build strong relations and a new future in the region."
For his part, Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdel Latif bin Rashed al-Zayani said that over the past 18 months since the conclusion of the Abraham Accords, the parties "have seen the great potential for cooperation in all fields and have understood how the opportunities can be realized."
"We have to work together, collectively we can change the region and achieve common security," he said.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry also drew attention to "positive developments in the normalization of relations with Israel."
"This round of discussions allowed us to discuss our common vision and ways to maintain trust," the minister noted. - "Our talks were constructive and in-depth, addressing the many challenges facing our region. "The path we chose together with Israel 43 years ago was fruitful, it demonstrated the importance of stability in the region," Shukri added.
Palestinian agenda
Arab ministers reiterated their states' positions in support of the two-state solution, a Palestinian and an Israeli, within the 1967 borders, and stressed the importance of continuing the Middle East peace process. The ministers noted that they are working to bring together the parties, which, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken noted Sunday after a meeting in Ramallah with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, are very far apart.
The Negev Summit forum, which ended at the kibbutz (agricultural community) of Sde Boqer in the Negev desert in southern Israel with foreign ministers from four Arab countries as well as the United States and Israel, is scheduled to become an annual event.
In September 2020, in Washington, D.C., the Israeli side signed documents on normalizing relations with the UAE and Bahrain with US mediation. The trilateral deal was called in the West the Abrahamic Accords. Then Sudan and Morocco announced the normalization of relations with Israel. Before peace with the UAE and Bahrain, the Jewish state had diplomatic relations only with Egypt (since 1979) and Jordan (since 1994).
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Based on materials from TASS