CAIRO —
Egypt hosted the Israeli and UAE leaders for unprecedented three-way talks
Tuesday as the Ukraine war rocks energy and food markets and major powers inch
toward a revived Iran nuclear deal.
اضافة اعلان
The summit was
held in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh between Egypt’s President
Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, and the UAE’s ruler Abu
Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed.
It comes nearly
a month after Russia invaded Ukraine in a move that sparked concerns about
security and sent prices of oil, wheat and other key commodities soaring.
Egypt, Israel,
and the UAE are allies of the
US but they have so far avoided taking positions
against Russia over its war on Ukraine.
“Against the
backdrop of the recent developments in the world and the region, the leaders
discussed the ties between the three countries and ways to strengthen them on
all levels,” said a statement from Bennett’s office.
It was the first
summit of its kind, and signaled “a new doctrine” of regional diplomacy
championed by the UAE, said Mustafa Kamel Al-Sayyid, a professor of political
science at
Cairo University.
Bennett and
Sheikh Mohammed had arrived in Egypt on Monday.
At their meeting
on Tuesday, the three leaders discussed “energy, market stability, and food
security,” Egyptian presidency spokesman Bassam Radi said.
Israeli media
said the leaders would also discuss reports that Iran and Western powers,
including the US, are close to a deal to revive the 2015 nuclear accord.
Bennett is
vehemently opposed to the deal which is designed to prevent Israel’s arch foe
Iran from acquiring an atomic bomb — a goal Iran has always denied.
The Israeli
leader on Sunday appealed to the US not to remove Iran’s
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from its blacklist of foreign terrorist organizations as part of a
renewed deal.
Bennett also
travelled to Sharm El-Sheikh in September last year, in what was the first
visit in over a decade by an Israeli head of government.
Egypt was the
first
Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, after decades of
enmity and conflict.
More than security
In 2020, the UAE became the third Arab country to forge diplomatic ties with
Israel, under a series of US-brokered deals known as the Abraham Accords.
“The UAE is
interested in exporting the framework of the
Abraham Accords to the rest of the
Middle East,” Sayyid told AFP, adding the accords addressed more than “just
security ties”.
For Sayyid,
Tuesday’s meeting was the real-world application of this approach.
In contrast with
Egypt, which has focused predominantly on strong military and strategic ties
with Israel, the UAE has hit the ground running on robust economic relations.
Within the first
year of establishing diplomatic ties, the two regional heavyweights had agreed
a raft of deals ranging from tourism and aviation to cutting-edge technology.
The official
Emirati news agency WAM said Tuesday’s meeting “discussed ways of enhancing
relations between the three countries”.
It also addressed
“the importance of cooperation and coordination to drive development and
enhance stability in the region, as well as bolstering global energy security
and market stability.”
The three leaders also “exchanged views on a number of
regional and global issues of mutual concern and relevant developments,” said
WAM.
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