A UAE official cautions Israel Plans for a West Bank colony go beyond the red line.

The United Arab Emirates warned Israel on Wednesday that annexation in the occupied West Bank would constitute a “red line” for Abu Dhabi that would severely undermine the spirit of the Abraham Accords that normalised UAE-Israeli relations.

As the most well-known of the three Arab nations that signed the agreements with Israel when President Donald Trump first took office, the United Arab Emirates’ remarks constituted Abu Dhabi’s most forceful condemnation of Israel since the Gaza War broke out in 2023, when Hamas conducted its cross-border raid from the enclave.

Trump has been working to broaden the accords, but his attempts to entice additional countries, including as Saudi Arabia, have been hampered by the mounting worldwide censure of Israel’s war strategy in the Arab world, Europe, and elsewhere.

The idea of a Palestinian state would be “buried” when Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared in August that construction would begin on a long-delayed settlement that would split the West Bank and shut it off from East Jerusalem.

Campaign organizations, supporters, and the Palestinian Authority, which has some degree of self-rule in the West Bank, denounced the scheme as unlawful and claimed that the territorial division would destroy any regional peace initiatives. Additionally, Smotrich has advocated for the annexation of the West Bank.

The UAE’s Minister of Foreign Affairs’ envoy and assistant minister for political affairs, Lana Nusseibeh, told Reuters: “We saw the Accords as a means to facilitate our ongoing assistance to the Palestinian people and their rightful desire for an independent state from the outset.

“We demand that the Israeli government halt these plans for settlements. The course of the region cannot be dictated by extremists of any kind. It takes bravery, tenacity, and a refusal to allow violence dictate our decisions to achieve peace.

“RED LINE”

Nusseibeh went on to say that “annexation in the West Bank would constitute a red line for the UAE” since it would put an end to the goal of regional integration and seriously damage “the vision and spirit” of the Abraham Accords.

A request for reaction on the UAE’s comments was not immediately answered by the Israeli prime minister’s office.

Under the Abraham Accords, signed during President Donald Trump’s first term in office, the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco normalised diplomatic relations with Israel following US mediation.

The UAE, the most notable Arab state to formally establish ties with Israel in 30 years, was the largest prize for Israel in those deals. The UAE is a major global oil producer and a commercial and trade hub with diplomatic clout extending across the Middle East.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was full of hope when the agreements were made, claiming that “this peace will eventually expand to include other Arab states.”

“In the end, it can put an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict once and for all,” he even said.

The agreements were a victory for Trump, who intends to convince Saudi Arabia, a key regional power, to normalize relations with Israel and lessen the latter’s isolation in the area during his current second term.

However, Israel’s war in Gaza, which has killed more than 62,000 Palestinians, destroyed the densely populated enclave and caused a humanitarian crisis, drawing attention away from Trump’s attempts to further normalize relations between Israel and the Arab world.