T
he peace treaty signed under the auspices of Donald Trump in September 2020 between Israel and the United Arab Emirates marked the first strategic partnership between Israel and an Arab state. It was also the first and most robust of the "Abraham Accords," with three subsequent normalization agreements reached between Israel and Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.
None of these agreements has brought about any progress in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, neither before nor after October 7, 2023. On the contrary, there are increasing parallels between the impunity enjoyed by both Israel and the UAE as they project power aggressively across the Middle East. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has even adopted the martial reference to Sparta, used before him by the federation of emirates headed by Mohammed bin Zayed.
That neither leader shows much regard for international law is nothing new. What is more surprising is that an Arab leader can openly defy Washington and persist in doing so. The blurred lines maintained by Trump and his administration partly explained this apparent indulgence toward the UAE.
Growing tensions between Abu Dhabi and Riyadh
