Saudi, Emirati analysts: Palestinians will benefit from accord
'Deal pulls rug from under the feet of Turkey, Iran.'
By KHALED ABU TOAMEHPalestinians demonstrate in the village of Kafr Malik northeast of Ramallah in September 2019. (photo credit: FLASH90)
Abd al-Aziz bin Razen, a prominent Saudi academic and researcher, defended the normalization agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates on Saturday, saying it “pulled the rug from under the feet of Turkey and Iran” and turned the Palestinians into the “biggest winners.”In an article published in the Saudi al-Khaleeg online newspaper, Razen wrote that the agreement was not a “blank check, but rather the goal was to protect the rights of the Palestinian people who have been abandoned by Hamas and thrown into the arms of Iran.“The UAE is sovereign and has the right to do what its political and security interests dictate,” Razen argued. “It initiated this agreement after 72 years of the Arab-Israeli conflict to protect Islamic sanctities. One of the conditions of the agreement is to allow Muslims around the world to pray at the blessed al-Aqsa Mosque.”The Saudi academic noted that the Israel-UAE deal was not the first of its kind. “It was preceded by several agreements such as the [Israel-Egypt] Camp David agreement, the [1991] Madrid Peace Conference, the [1993] Oslo Accords [between the PLO and Israel] that resulted in the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, as well as the [1994] Wadi Araba Agreement [between Israel and Jordan],” Razen pointed out.The UAE, he added, “is trying to put an end to the era of denunciation and condemnation by taking this step to serve the defenseless Palestinian people. It threw the ball into the court of the Palestinians, who must now seize the opportunity and abandon the policy of lip service.”In another article published in the Saudi newspaper, Emirati political analyst and researcher Salem al-Ketbi also defended the deal with Israel, saying the UAE was acting in the interest of the Palestinians and all peoples of the region.“The UAE is using its role and sense of national responsibility in order to remove the possibility of an escalation of violence in the event of the implementation of the Israeli decision to annex Palestinian lands,” al-Ketbi wrote. “The deal offers the Palestinian people and their leaders a rescue neckband that preserves all their rights, revives the opportunities for a political settlement and creates new opportunities for the peace process.”The Emirati political analyst added that the UAE, which has always supported the Palestinians and their “just cause,” will continue to do so in the future.“Establishing direct relations with Israel will enable the UAE to play an effective and influential role in the security and stability of the region, in cooperation with the Arab countries, and to encourage the Palestinian and Israeli parties to engage in serious dialogue in search of a just settlement,” al-Ketbi concluded.
