ABU DHABI, Sep 3: A senior United Arab Emirates official has warned Israel that any move to annex the West Bank will cross a red line , threatening the future of the Abraham Accords and ending hopes for regional integration.
Annexation would be a red line for my government, and that means there can be no lasting peace. It would foreclose the idea of regional integration and be the death knell of the two-state solution, Emirati special envoy Lana Nusseibeh told The Times of Israel in Abu Dhabi.
Her remarks came just days before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to consult ministers on advancing annexation plans, and as Israel s far-right coalition pushes for the formal incorporation of large parts of the occupied territory.
The warning is the UAE s starkest since it became the first Arab country in over 25 years to normalise ties with Israel under the US-brokered Abraham Accords in 2020. Emirati officials have long described the deal as irreversible, making Nusseibeh s statement an unusually direct signal of disquiet.
She cautioned that annexation would be a strategic loss for Israel, removing the possibility of further Arab states following the UAE s lead. For every Arab capital you talk to, the idea of regional integration is still a possibility, but annexation to satisfy some of the radical extremist elements in Israel is going to take that off the table, she said.
Her remarks come as Netanyahu has been mulling over the possible annexation of the area an action only bolstered amid the declaration by several Western countries who announced their intention of recognising a Palestinian state in light of the crisis in Gaza.
The move, which is spearheaded by France, and joined by the UK, Canada, Australia and Belgium, has prodded hardliners in the Israeli premier s cabinet to consider it a very unique opportunity in disguise, due to Israel s long maintained stance that any recognition of a Palestinian state rewards Hamas terror onslaught on October 7, 2023 and incentivises terrorism.
On Wednesday, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for annexing 82% of the territory, urging Netanyahu to act swiftly to assert full Israeli sovereignty.
Nusseibeh also appealed to Washington, saying the UAE trusted President Donald Trump not to allow the Abraham Accords seen as a central foreign policy legacy to be derailed by extremists.
She argued the US administration still held key levers to encourage wider regional integration if Israel stepped back from annexation.
Her message, while warning of consequences, also held out the prospect of progress if Israel reversed course. Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, remain open to normalisation, she said, but only if Jerusalem drops its annexation plans and commits to a credible path toward Palestinian statehood.
When Hamas tried to derail the Abraham Accords vision with the October 7 attacks, we were firm in our response, she said, pointing to the UAE s condemnation of the assault and its delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Our view was that the vision of the Abraham Accords remains pertinent that you can t let extremists set the trajectory of the region.
But she warned that Israel s deepening entrenchment in the West Bank risked pushing the region towards a point of no return.
The Abraham Accords tenets of prosperity, coexistence, tolerance, integration and stability have never looked more under threat than they are today, she said.
Despite the rising tension, Nusseibeh stressed that Israel still had an opportunity to avoid isolation. There is an outstretched hand, despite all of this misery, in the region to Israel. But annexation would withdraw that hand. (UNI)
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