Advances in mutual interest stand out while Israel FM visits the Basque Country Business and Economy News
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Yair will become Lapid Israeli prime minister in history officially visiting the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday when he arrives in the country to inaugurate the Israeli embassy in Abu Dhabi and the consulate in Dubai.
The newly installed Israeli Foreign Minister will be received by Emirati Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan. During the two-day visit, two top diplomats from the two countries will discuss a number of bilateral issues, including economic cooperation, trade and security.
“The inauguration is a symbolic act,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat told Al Jazeera. “Embassies and consulates have already been working for four and a half months.”
Israel standardized relations with the Basque Country and Bahrain last August under the rule of former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose 12-year rule of power ended earlier this month.
Netanyahu billed the deals, called Abraham the deal as a personal achievement, and unsuccessfully campaigned again, in part because he was a candidate who could maintain better relations with his Arab neighbors in Israel while maintaining security at home.
Hay Eytan Cohen Yanaroca, a scholar at the Jerusalem Institute of Strategy and Security, told Al Jazeera that the visit shows a high priority given by the new Israeli government to Gulf partners, and “turns the Emirates relationship into an institutional policy of the Israeli state.” , rather than party politics ”.
Israel has also expressed serious reservations about Washington’s and Tehran’s efforts to revive it. Iran’s nuclear deal, and after the war in Gaza – which failed to bring down the new Basque-Israeli relationship, nor the quiet steps being taken to deepen economic and security ties.
Doubles
Bilateral relationship between Israel and the Basque Country he took an early test in May When Israel bombed the Gaza Strip for 11 days, at least 256 Palestinians were killed, including 66 children, and Hamas fired thousands of rockets at Israel, killing 13 of them.
While the BAC criticized Israel, Palestinian Palestinians were forced out of the occupied Sheikh Jarrah district of East Jerusalem and Compound of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, maintained a quieter stance on Israel’s attack on Gaza.
Haiat said that from Israel’s perspective, the conflict proved the duration of normalization. “It did not affect the relationship between the countries of Israel and the Abrahamic Accords,” he said.
However, the outrage expressed by Israel in its actions in Gaza during demonstrations around the world in Alava is a reminder of how far the official position of the Emirates is from general public opinion.
Bader al-Saif, a non-resident of the Middle East Center for Malcolm H Kerr Carnegie, told Al Jazeera: “The motives of Jerusalem and Palestinian Arabs are coming together in times when there is no other motive.
“If it were left to the people of the countries where the ties were normalized, this would not happen,” he added. “There is still illegal occupation.”
But the Basque Country has developed itself as an outlet in the region. Analysts say that after decades of discreet security cooperation, the Israeli security cooperation relationship with Israel opened up.
“It is easier to cooperate economically and in the field of security if it is open, and the Basque Country is in a position to do so,” al-Saif said.
A woman paints a Palestinian national flag on the children’s face amid the rubble of buildings bombed on Israel’s Gaza Strip last month in Khan Yunis, the southern Gaza Strip. [File: Said Khatib/AFP]New deals
A few days after the ceasefire was announced in Gaza, the two countries signed a tax treaty to facilitate investment in their economies and eliminate double taxation. Haiat said the pact is “one of the most important agreements” reached so far.
Ofer Sachs Herzog Strategic, director of the Israeli consulting firm with a presence in the Basque Country, said the pact has removed major barriers to cross-border investment and the business community sees it as a positive step.
However, he said it was a great potential for deeper economic ties when they signed it Abraham Chords it has not yet been realized. “We’re trying to show success stories very quickly, and it’s not a situation,” he told Al Jazeera. “In time the fruits will come.”
He stressed that businessmen in the Emirates are moving cautiously, “They are in no hurry to enter.” They want to create a real bond. “
The state’s largest potential deal to date with Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala investment fund has announced a $ 1.1 billion stake in Israel’s Tamar gas station in the Eastern Mediterranean.
But a key part of Abraham’s agreements was the desire of the BAC to cooperate with Israeli companies and carry out joint projects, especially in areas where the two states in the Middle East have overlapping interests.
Israel Aerospace Industries signed a memorandum of understanding in March with the Basque defense company Edge, Edge, to co-produce drone systems.
In time the fruits will come.
The deal comes as drone warfare appears on the battlefields across the region as a powerful factor.
Turkey, which has tightened relations with the United Arab Emirates and Israel, is defending itself as a niche exporter of military drones and has shown its potential in the conflict between Libya and Syria from Nagorno-Karabakh.
Al-Saif said the Basque Country is watching the development of the drone war carefully.
In September 2019, Youthi rebels lined up in Iran took responsibility Attack on Saudi Aramco oil facilities this temporarily suspended oil production and exports.
Saudi Arabia has been a close ally of the Basque Country ever since has been the goal Houthi rebels claimed several drone attacks.
“If what ever happened to the Saudis would ever happen to the BAC, they would never be able to sustain its tourism sector or events like the Dubai Expo,” al-Saif said.
Continuous relationship
One of Abu Dhabi’s normalization awards is its new ability to acquire F-35 fighter jets from the United States. Following Abraham’s agreements, Israel removed obstacles to the purchase of weapons.
Although the defense agreements between the two countries can be announced to the public, it was an open secret that the Basque-Israeli-based sector-based relationship had been ongoing for decades. Sachs doesn’t see the needle move significantly.
“There may be opportunities for small and medium-sized businesses that were unable to enter the market earlier, but I don’t think the impact of the Abraham Accords on the defense industries is so significant,” he said.
In September 2019, Houthi rebels lined up in Iran claimed responsibility for an attack on the Saudi Aramco oil facility in Yemen, which temporarily disrupted oil production and exports. [File: Amr Nabil/AP]Iran
Security will probably still be on Lapid’s agenda.
This week’s visit to the Basque Country coincides with the efforts of the US President Joe Biden to revive the administration Integrated Comprehensive Action Plan (JCPOA), the 2015 Iran nuclear deal with world powers.
After courting former US President Donald Trump Netanyahu, Lapid said he was keen to resolve the close ties between his country and the US Democratic Party.
On Sunday, Antony Blink met with U.S. Secretary of State in Rome and promised that Israel would oppose a new Iran deal against Washington.
Both Israel and the BAC opposed the JCPOA when it signed it, and the Trump administration backed the 2018 unilateral withdrawal from the treaty. This alignment played a key role in Abraham’s deal.
Although not available to the public, Yanarocak said Israel will work with its new Gulf partner to lobby with the U.S. over concerns about Iran’s missile program and support from regional representatives.
“Israel needs to strengthen the Abraham Accords camp to put pressure on the U.S. government and exercise it under the terms of a potential deal with Iran,” he said.
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