As Israel readies for its ground invasion of Gaza against the Islamic terrorist organization Hamas, Arab nations Tuesday, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and others, reiterated their support for the Abraham Accords, the normalization agreement between Israel and some Arab states signed during Trump’s presidency.
Ali Rashid Al Nuaimi, chairman of the Defense Affairs, Interior and Foreign Relations Committee of the UAE Federal National Council, said: "From the UAE perspective, the Abraham Accords are there to stay,” he said at a briefing of the European Jewish Association and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Al Nuaimi stated that the Accords, which normalized peaceful relations between the Jewish state, Bahrain, Morocco, the UAE, and Sudan, are the future of the Middle East.
"The willingness of Abraham Accords countries to openly condemn Hamas and reiterate their commitment to economic cooperation with Israel proves that the peace will not only hold but endure," said Aryeh Lightstone, Executive Director of the Abraham Accords Peace Institute.
According to Lightstone, the Abraham Accords "were built on peace through strength. The Abraham Accords countries face shared threats from Iranian terror proxies. An Israeli victory over Hamas would, therefore, increase the strength of the Abraham Accords and make their expansion more likely."
Jason Greenblatt, a Former Trump White House Middle East Envoy, said he was still a "huge believer in the Abraham Accords."
"I still think it's essential for the stability, security, and prosperity of the region not to bet against peace,” Greenblatt said.
He also stated there would be an Abraham Accords 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0 because "it is essential.”
"We want everyone to acknowledge and accept that Israel is there to exist and that the roots of Jews [and] Christians are not in New York or Paris but here in our region. They are part of our history, and they should be part of our future," said Al Nuaimi.
Regarding Hamas, Al Nuaimi said that the terrorist organization and others like it "don't respect human life."
"No person with a human feeling and common sense will agree with the barbarian terrorist attack that Hamas committed on October 7," he added.
In Washington, United States National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that Saudi Arabia is still open to a normalization agreement with Israel despite the ongoing war.
The comments from Kirby came after US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met with Saudi Arabian Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman Al Saud Monday.
"We came away from those discussions confident that there will be a path to get back towards normalization," Kirby said.
Even as Israel faces public backlash from Arab nations about their invasion of Hamas, privately, Saudi and other Arab regimes have voiced their support for Hamas’s destruction, given their closeness with the Islamic Republic of Iran. In Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iraq, Iranian-backed proxies have voiced support for Hamas, vowing to support Hamas and attack the U.S. and any regional players supporting Jerusalem.
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