Washington sponsors the signing of two peace agreements between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain

  two peace agreements between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain

The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed an agreement for normalization with Israel, at the White House under the auspices of US President Donald Trump.

Trump described the event as an "extraordinary day for the world, which would set history on a new course," and praised what he called "the dawn of a new Middle East."

The three countries - the UAE, Bahrain and Israel - hailed the agreements as historic.

Trump hopes that other Arab countries will follow the example of the two Gulf states, but the Palestinians are urging Arab countries not to do so, as long as their conflict remains unresolved.

Under the two agreements, the UAE and Bahrain will establish diplomatic, commercial and economic relations with Israel, which has not fought a war against them before, and the two agreements will strengthen an informal alliance against Iranian threats and Turkish ambitions, and pave the way for the UAE to obtain advanced US arms deals.

The UAE and Bahraini-Israeli peace agreements are historic, but they are not the first. There are three peace treaties between Arab countries and Israel that were signed after US mediation over the past decades.

Under President Jimmy Carter, the beginning was with the signing of the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty, signed by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, which followed the Camp David Accords that resulted from 12-day negotiations in the presidential retreat.

For decades, most Arab states boycotted Israel, insisting that relations with it be established only after the Palestinian conflict was settled.

Fifteen years after the Egyptian-Israeli agreement, the White House table was on a new date with a peace agreement under the name of the Oslo Accord, concluded between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel, which was signed by President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, and whose signature was overseen by US President Bill Clinton.

In the context of the reactions, US Vice President Mike Pence wrote on Twitter: “It is a truly historic day at the White House.

Saif bin Zayed, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior of the United Arab Emirates, affirmed that "the peace treaty is a step that marks a new and lasting peace."