Blair Unveils his Role in UAE-Israel Negotiations

Gulf

September 11th, 11:26am

Tel Aviv - Asharq Al-Awsat

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting at his Jerusalem office December 2, 2018. Gali Tibbon/Pool via REUTERS

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair played a key role in the peace deal between the United Arab Emirates and Israel, Israel Hayom revealed on Thursday. The newspaper published an exclusive interview with Blair, who acknowledged to have “worked for years to bring Israel and the United Arab Emirates closer together.” He added that he played the mediating role for 15 years, traveling between London, Abu Dhabi and Nicosia to hold a series of secret meetings with lawyer Yitzhak Molcho, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s former special envoy, and with a minister in the UAE government. Blair said the talks continued positively until January 2010, when a diplomatic crisis erupted because agents of the Israeli Mossad assassinated Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a leader in the Hamas movement, in a Dubai hotel. The talks resumed only five years later. Between 2015 and 2018, intensive talks took place, but were halted again when Molcho, forcibly stepped down, on suspicion of corruption in the submarine scandal known as “Case 3000.” Blair said he later learned that the two sides continued contacts without his assistance. He stressed that what allowed the breakthrough was Israel agreeing to the UAE’s condition to stop plans for the annexation of parts of the West Bank. Sources close to Netanyahu revealed the adoption of very strict travel procedures for the upcoming signing ceremony of the peace treaty between the two countries in Washington. The sources said that Netanyahu decided to impose strict measures to prevent a possible infection with COVID-19 during the trip. In addition to making the PCR test mandatory for the Israeli delegation and reducing the number of participants, it was decided to prevent officials and journalists from wandering in Washington, and to oblige everyone to stay in the same hotel and not leave for any reason, and to return to Tel Aviv directly after the signing of the treaty.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2501851/blair-unveils-his-role-uae-israel-negotiations