Israel and UAE to sign more deals, Lapid says

DUBAI: Israel's top diplomat Yair Lapid said Wednesday that more cooperation deals with the UAE were on the horizon, during a landmark visit to the Gulf nation.

The United Arab Emirates and Israel normalised ties in September, paving the way for a raft of deals ranging from tourism and aviation to financial services.

"We're going sign more agreements in July... in Israel. So it's going to expand," he told journalists.

"The vision is (that) it moves from governments to business to people."

Lapid was speaking as he opened an Israeli consulate in the commercial hub of Dubai, a day after opening the country's first Gulf embassy in UAE capital Abu Dhabi.

"What we are opening here today isn't only a consulate. It's a centre of cooperation. A place that symbolises our ability to think together, to develop together, to change the world together," he said.

On Wednesday, he also visited the gigantic Expo 2020 Dubai, at which Israel will participate along with more than 190 countries.

The six-month global expo, which Dubai hopes will attract visitors and boost the economy, is set to launch in October after a one-year delay due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"The Israeli pavilion will serve as a platform to establish bilateral cooperation in business, industry, investments, culture and academia," said Israel's point man for the expo, Elazar Cohen, in a statement.

Lapid also met with his Emirati counterpart, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, on Tuesday, signing an agreement "for economic and commercial cooperation", according to a UAE foreign ministry statement.

From oil to tourism to cutting-edge technologies, the two countries hope to benefit from an economic dividend following the normalisation agreement.

Bilateral trade has reached over $675.22 million since the signing of the so-called Abraham Accords in September last year, Israel's top diplomat told the UAE's WAM news agency.

"Since September 2020, a number of transactions, valued at tens of millions of dollars, have been signed between Israeli and Emirati companies in the fields of artificial intelligence, cyber, renewable energy, water security, health and more," Lapid said.

Israeli ministers have previously visited the UAE, but newly appointed Lapid became the most senior Israeli to make the trip, and the first on an official mission.

Lapid's visit comes amid escalating tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, peaking last month in an 11-day conflict.

That came just months after Israel struck accords with the UAE and then also with Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan, sparking outrage among Palestinians.

The deals break with decades of Arab League policy making an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal a prerequisite for Arab relations with Israel.

Lapid voiced hopes that such deals would reach "the entire region".

Following the US-brokered deal between the UAE and Israel, officials in Washington had talked of bringing Saudi Arabia into the Abraham Accords.

But Lapid talked down any imminent breakthrough in that direction.

"It's not easy as it sounds, it going to take time... a lot of difficulties (are) in the way, but Israel's goal is peace in the region and peace with its neighbours," he said.

The new foreign minister's trip also comes as Israeli arch-ally the US and arch-enemy Iran hold indirect talks aiming to revive a 2015 nuclear deal -- efforts the previous Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu had strongly opposed.

Lapid said Israel was "still worried" about the talks, but used language markedly different from that of Netanyahu.

"There are three options. The best one is a good agreement... that we prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons," he said.

"Second-best is the sanction, the maximum pressure, and the third is a bad agreement."