UAE warns Israel: West Bank annexation a ‘red line’ that threatens Abraham Accords

Dubai: The United Arab Emirates on Wednesday warned Israel that annexation in the occupied West Bank would constitute a “red line” that would severely undermine the Abraham Accords, which normalised UAE-Israeli relations.

Lana Nusseibeh, Assistant Minister for Political Affairs at the Foreign Ministry and Envoy of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, told Reuters the Accords were designed to support Palestinians and their “legitimate aspiration for an independent state.”

She urged Israel to suspend settlement plans, saying: “Extremists of any kind cannot be allowed to dictate the region’s trajectory. Peace requires courage, persistence and a refusal to let violence define our choices.”

Nusseibeh warned that annexation would “severely undermine the vision and spirit” of the Accords and “end the pursuit of regional integration.”

She added that Israeli proposals to annex parts of the West Bank were aimed at “burying the idea of a Palestinian state.”

The UAE, Bahrain and Morocco recognised Israel under the US-brokered Abraham Accords during Donald Trump’s first term in office, breaking with the Arab consensus that ties should wait until Palestinian statehood was secured.

The accords were seen as a diplomatic triumph for Trump, who, in his second term, hopes to persuade Saudi Arabia to also normalise ties with Israel and further ease its regional isolation.

Also on Wednesday, Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich presented a plan to annex large areas of the West Bank, urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “make a historic decision to apply Israeli sovereignty to all open areas in Judea and Samaria.”

Smotrich called for Israeli annexation of "all open areas" of the territory, saying "the supreme principle of applying sovereignty... is the slogan: maximum land with minimum (Palestinian) population".

He added that the settlements administration within the defence ministry had in recent months drawn up maps which would apply Israeli sovereignty to approximately 82 per cent of the West Bank.

Smotrich said annexation would permanently take “the idea of dividing our tiny land and establishing a terrorist state at its centre off the agenda once and for all.”

Israel has also recently advanced construction of the controversial E1 settlement east of Jerusalem, a project widely condemned as illegal under international law and seen by critics as undermining the prospect of a contiguous Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The warning from Abu Dhabi came as Belgium became the latest country to announce it would recognise Palestine at the United Nations, further intensifying pressure on Israel.