UAE may downgrade diplomatic ties if ‘Israel’ annexes West Bank

In the strongest warning since the signing of the Abraham Accords, Reuters cited three informed sources on Thursday saying that the United Arab Emirates could downgrade its diplomatic ties with ‘Israel’ if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government moves to annex part or all of the occupied West Bank.

The warning represents a direct threat to the Abraham Accords, signed in 2020 under US sponsorship, a landmark foreign policy achievement for both US President Donald Trump and ‘Israeli’ Prime Minister Netanyahu. 

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The UAE is one of the few Arab states with full diplomatic relations with ‘Israel,’ and any move to downgrade ties, would be a blow for the normalization process and could push other countries, like Bahrain, to take similar steps.

The report comes amid rising calls from far-right ministers in Netanyahu’s government to impose sovereignty over large parts of the West Bank, taking advantage of heightened regional security tensions.

The UAE had previously justified its participation in the Abraham Accords as a means to “halt annexation plans” and open dialogue.

Any step toward annexation would be seen as undermining the agreements and place Abu Dhabi in a very difficult diplomatic position with regional and global partners.