OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Visiting British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab greeted Israel's normalisation deal with the UAE on Tuesday and sought to convince the Palestinians to resume peace talks with the Jewish state. But he appeared to get precious little joy on either side. Arriving in Israel Monday evening Raab met for talks on Iran with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who was on the first leg of a Middle East tour.
On Tuesday Raab met in Jerusalem with Israeli leaders then made the short drive to the West Bank city of Ramallah where he called on Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas. "We are big supporters of the agreement to normalise relations with the United Arab Emirates," he said in Jerusalem in a statement alongside his Israeli counterpart Gabi Ashkenazi.
"It is a positive and important step," Raab said. But in a separate meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chided his guest over Britain's lack of support for a US push to maintain an arms embargo and restore broader UN sanctions on Iran. Netanyahu's office quoted the premier as telling Raab "that he expects Britain to change its policy towards Iran and that it should join the American sanctions". And in Ramallah, Raab met Abbas, a fierce opponent of the Israel-Emirates pact.
Raab tweeted that at his meeting with Netanyahu he urged a return to Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, stalled since 2014. "I reiterated UK support for dialogue with Palestinians to achieve lasting peace through a viable 2-state solution," he wrote.
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