WASHINGTON: On 13 August, US President Donald Trump announced a historicpeace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, which became thefirst country in the Persian Gulf to normalise ties with Tel Aviv. Theagreement is now expected to be signed at the White House on 15 September.
During his Thursday press briefing, President Trump suggested that “anothercountry” may join the United Arab Emirates and Israel in their peacesigning, while hinting that some other unnamed states were also reallyeager to take part. However, it was not immediately clear, whether the USpresident simply meant the signing event or the normalisation process inthe Middle East as a whole.
“Next week at the White House, we’ll be having a signing between the UAEand Israel, and we could have another country added into that. And I willtell you that countries are lining up that want to go into it”, Trump said.
The country in question was not specified by POTUS, as he went on to saythat “you’ll be hearing (about) other countries coming in over a relativelyshort period of time. And you could have peace in the Middle East.”
The US commander-in-chief then hinted that Saudi Arabia may eventually beamong the countries to conclude a peace agreement with Tel Aviv, as he hasalready apparently discussed this pressing issue with Saudi Arabia’s KingSalman.
“I think what ultimately will happen is you’re going to have quite a fewcountries come in. The big ones are going to be coming in. I spoke to theking of Saudi Arabia, so we’re talking. We just started the dialogue. Andyou’ll have them come in,” POTUS said in a briefing.
Earlier, Trump had already presumed that Saudi Arabia would be willing tojoin the UAE leadership in concluding a lasting peace accord with Israeland even said that “ultimately Iran will come in, too”.
When the Israel-Iran peace deal, dubbed the “Abraham Accord”, was announcedby Donald Trump in August, Iran’s leadership immediately slammed it as a“treacherous act” to the Palestinian cause and a “huge mistake”.
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U.S. President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner,center, national security adviser Robert O’Brien, fourth left, and Israeliand American delegations pose for a photo before their departure to AbuDhabi, at Ben-Gurion Airport, in Lod, near Tel Aviv, Israel, Monday, Aug.31, 2020
The UAE became the first country in the Gulf and the third in the MiddleEast to establish diplomatic relationship with Tel Aviv, after Egypt andJordan did so in 1979 and 1994 respectively.
Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, who is seen as a keyfigure in the Mid East normalisation process, said in August that it was an“inevitability” that other Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, will followthe UAE’s suit.
The peace signing event is expected to be held in the White House nextTuesday. It is not yet clear which delegations apart from the participantsin question will attend the ceremony.
Courtesy: (Sputnik)
