The United Arab Emirates warned Israel on Wednesday that any annexation of the West Bank would be a red line for Abu Dhabi, threatening to undermine the Abraham Accords that normalised ties between the two states.
Lana Nusseibeh, Assistant Minister for Political Affairs and Envoy of the UAE Foreign Minister, said the accords were signed with the understanding they would support the Palestinians’ path to statehood.
“From the very beginning, we viewed the Accords as a way to enable our continued support for the Palestinian people and their legitimate aspiration for an independent state,” Nusseibeh told Reuters.
“That was our position in 2020, and it remains our position today.”
The remarks are the sharpest criticism from Abu Dhabi since Israel’s war in Gaza erupted in 2023. They follow an announcement by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich that construction would begin on a settlement project cutting across the West Bank, a step his office described as one that would “bury” the idea of a Palestinian state.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Israel’s new settlement plan ‘undermines the two‑state solution while being a breach of international law’.
Foreign ministers from the EU, UK, Australia, Canada, and others condemned the plan, saying it violates international law and threatened regional stability.
Palestinian officials and rights groups have denounced the project as illegal under international law, arguing that it fragments territory and leaves no room for peace.
Nusseibeh urged Israel to halt the 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.”
The Abraham Accords, brokered during Donald Trump’s first term as U.S. president, brought the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco into formal diplomatic relations with Israel.
Trump had sought to add Saudi Arabia to the framework, but the devastation in Gaza and the ongoing humanitarian crisis have shifted attention away from those ambitions.
Israel’s prime minister’s office has yet to respond to a request for comment on the UAE’s remarks.
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Indonesian rescue teams have located two Singaporeans who went missing after Mount Dukono erupted on Friday (8 May) on the island of Halmahera, though authorities say it remains unclear whether they are alive.
Efforts to end the U.S.-Iran war appeared to stall as the two sides exchanged fire in and around the Strait of Hormuz. A reported CIA assessment suggested Tehran could withstand a U.S. naval blockade for months despite mounting sanctions and renewed Gulf attacks.
Health authorities are monitoring a widening hantavirus alert after new suspected cases emerged in Spain and on a remote South Atlantic island, days after an outbreak on a cruise ship left three people dead and several others infected.
The U.S. Defense Department has released dozens of previously classified files on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) on Friday (8 May), following an order from President Donald Trump. U.S. officials described as a push for “unprecedented transparency”.
The U.S military said it carried out retaliatory strikes on Iran on Thursday (7 May). Meanwhile, Iran's Joint Military Command accused the U.S. of breaching the ceasefire, by striking an Iranian oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz and launching attacks on several Iranian cities.
The U.S. and Iran exchanged fire in and around the Strait of Hormuz, though both sides signalled they did not want escalation. The clashes come as Washington awaits Tehran’s response to a proposed deal to end the war while leaving key disputes, such as Iran’s nuclear programme, unresolved for now.
Singapore has isolated and is testing two of its residents who travelled aboard a cruise ship linked to a deadly hantavirus outbreak, the Communicable Diseases Agency (CDA) said on Thursday.
Efforts to end the U.S.-Iran war appeared to stall as the two sides exchanged fire in and around the Strait of Hormuz. A reported CIA assessment suggested Tehran could withstand a U.S. naval blockade for months despite mounting sanctions and renewed Gulf attacks.
Ukraine’s military said it struck a Russian Karakurt-class small missile carrier in the Caspian Sea near Russia’s Dagestan region on Thursday. The extent of the damage is still being assessed, according to Kyiv.
Indonesian rescue teams have located two Singaporeans who went missing after Mount Dukono erupted on Friday (8 May) on the island of Halmahera, though authorities say it remains unclear whether they are alive.
Health authorities are monitoring a widening hantavirus alert after new suspected cases emerged in Spain and on a remote South Atlantic island, days after an outbreak on a cruise ship left three people dead and several others infected.
The U.S. Defense Department has released dozens of previously classified files on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) on Friday (8 May), following an order from President Donald Trump. U.S. officials described as a push for “unprecedented transparency”.
Russia is holding a significantly scaled-back Victory Day parade in Moscow on 9 May 2026, reflecting heightened security concerns and the ongoing war in Ukraine, now in its fourth year.
The U.S. military said on 8 May that it struck a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing two people and leaving one survivor, in the latest in a series of controversial maritime operations targeting suspected drug trafficking routes.
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