Middle East Monitor / October 19, 2021
Israel’s [Palestinian] Regional Cooperation Minister, Issawi Frej, has said that every Arab state has direct or indirect ties with the occupation state, Emirati website Erem News reported on Monday.
“We have direct and indirect relations with every Arab country in the Middle East, even the hostile countries,” the Israeli Arab parliamentarian explained. “I see on the far horizon that all the countries of the Middle East will be within a union.”
He made his comments during a visit to Abu Dhabi. He also predicted that Qatar, Tunisia, Oman and Malaysia will normalize relations with Israel under the so-called Abraham Accords.
The Israeli official told the news website that 250,000 Israeli Arab citizens have visited the UAE over the past six months. “The Abraham Accords are a historical event and a turning point in the whole region,” he added. “They have led to movement and dynamism at the commercial, strategic and political levels, after a period of stagnation.”
According to Ynet News, a senior Israeli diplomat has said that Israel is in talks to normalize relations with Comoros, the archipelago off the east coast of Africa. The Arab country announced in 1994 that it had established diplomatic ties with the occupation state, but the move did not materialize.
In 2013, Comoros pursued legal action against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague over the deaths of Turkish citizens on board the Mavi Marmara, which was part of the Freedom Flotilla which tried to break the Israeli siege of Gaza in 2010. The ships in the flotilla were boarded by Israeli commandos in international waters. Nine activists were shot and killed, while a tenth died later of his wounds.
