Israel and the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday signed a flurry of deals, mediated by the US, to add heft to a normalisation agreement in which the Gulf state has pivoted towards Israel after decades of backing the Palestinians.
Under one of the agreements, Israelis will be allowed to travel to the Emirates visa-free, the first Arab nation to allow this, with Emiratis given the same right when travelling to the Jewish state.
The move, which must first be ratified by both countries’ parliaments, is a boost for Emirates, the state-owned airline, which is seeking to pick up the bulk of eastbound Israeli passengers after the near-collapse of Israeli carrier El Al due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In a reminder of the regional dimensions of the UAE’s realignment with Israel, plans were also announced to transport Emirati crude from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean through Israel, in a pipeline that Israel seized from a joint Israeli-Iranian venture after the 1979 revolution brought the Ayatollah Khomeini to power in Iran.
No comments:
Post a Comment