Question: Consider the following statements:
(1) United Arab Emirates is the first Gulf Arab state to establish full diplomatic ties with Israel.
(2) The agreement is officially called the Abraham Accord.
Of the above correct statement/s is/are:
(a) Only 1
(b) Only 2
(c) Both 1&2
(d) None of the above
Answer: (c)
Related facts:
- On 13th August 2020 US President Donald Trump announced that the United Arab Emirates and Israel have agreed to establish full diplomatic ties.
- Both the UAE and Israel are the USA’s close allies in West Asia.
- With this announcement, the UAE became the first Gulf Arab state to do so and only the third Arab nation to have active diplomatic ties with Israel.
- Only Egypt and Jordan have active diplomatic ties with Israel.Egypt made a peace deal with Israel in 1979, followed by Jordan in 1994.
- Mauritania recognised Israel in 1999, but later ended relations in 2009 over the Israel’s war in Gaza at the time.
- Under the deal, Israel would suspend its plans to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank.
- West Bank is a chunk of land located – as the name suggests – on the west bank of the River Jordan and bounded by Israel to the north, west and south. To its east lies Jordan.
- The West Bank has been occupied by Israel since the 1967 Middle East war. Palestinians hope this territory to be part of their future state.However, Israelis see these lands as theirs, and so has built hundreds of settlements and outposts over the past few decades.
- In recent years, ties between Gulf Arab nations and Israel have quietly grown, in part over their shared enmity of Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
- The agreement is also officially called the “Abraham Accord” in honor of Abraham, the patriarch of the three major Abrahamic religions of the world—Judaism, Islam and Christianity.
By-Amar Mani Upadhyay
Links:
https://indianexpress.com/article/world/uae-israel-peace-deal-donald-trump-world-reactions-6553585/
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/trump-says-uae-to-open-diplomatic-ties-with-israel/articleshow/77529280.cms
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-52756427