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UAE, US, Israeli FMs to Meet in Washington Soon to Boost Abraham Accords

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) meets Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid (R) in Rome in June 2021. (AFP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) meets Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid (R) in Rome in June 2021. (AFP)
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UAE, US, Israeli FMs to Meet in Washington Soon to Boost Abraham Accords

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) meets Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid (R) in Rome in June 2021. (AFP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) meets Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid (R) in Rome in June 2021. (AFP)

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid will hold a trilateral meeting in Washington with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan in the coming days, political sources in Tel Aviv said.

The meeting aims to discuss cooperation between the three countries within the framework of the Abraham Accords, in addition to Iran and the Biden administration’s nuclear talks with Tehran.

Lapid is expected to travel to Washington on Monday for talks with senior Biden administration officials, including Blinken, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Lapid’s office said that three ministers should discuss progress made in the Emirati-Israeli relations since the signing of the Abraham Accords last year, and to study additional opportunities to boost peace in the Middle East, in addition to security issues and regional stability.

Blinken last month pledged to encourage more Arab countries to normalize relations with Israel as he hosted a virtual meeting with Israeli and Arab counterparts to mark the first anniversary of the set of landmark diplomatic agreements.

The leaders of Israel, the UAE and Bahrain signed the Abraham Accords, widely seen as a diplomatic success for former President Donald Trump, at the White House in September of last year.

Biden has backed the deals since taking office in January, and senior aides have said they were working to get additional Arab countries to normalize relations with Israel after decades of enmity.

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Gaza Civil Defense Describes Medic Killings as 'Summary Executions'

A video recovered from the phone of one of the slain aid workers, released by the Red Crescent, appeared to contradict the Israeli military's account - AFP
A video recovered from the phone of one of the slain aid workers, released by the Red Crescent, appeared to contradict the Israeli military's account - AFP
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Gaza Civil Defense Describes Medic Killings as 'Summary Executions'

A video recovered from the phone of one of the slain aid workers, released by the Red Crescent, appeared to contradict the Israeli military's account - AFP
A video recovered from the phone of one of the slain aid workers, released by the Red Crescent, appeared to contradict the Israeli military's account - AFP

Gaza's civil defense agency on Monday accused the Israeli military of carrying out "summary executions" in the killing of 15 rescue workers last month, rejecting the findings of an internal probe by the army.

The medics and other rescue workers were killed when responding to distress calls near Gaza's southern city of Rafah early on March 23, days into Israel's renewed offensive in the Hamas-run territory, AFP reported.

Among those killed were eight Red Crescent staff members, six from the Gaza civil defense rescue agency and one employee of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, according to the UN humanitarian agency OCHA and Palestinian rescuers.

"The video filmed by one of the paramedics proves that the Israeli occupation's narrative is false and demonstrates that it carried out summary executions," Mohammed Al-Mughair, a civil defense official, told AFP, accusing Israel of seeking to "circumvent" its obligations under international law.

Following the shooting, the Red Crescent released a video recovered from the phone of one of the victims. It does not show executions, but it does directly contradict the version of events initially put forward by the Israeli military.

In particular, the video shows clearly that the ambulances were travelling with sirens, flashing lights and headlights on. The military had claimed the ambulances were travelling "suspiciously" and without lights.

- Operational failures -

The incident drew international condemnation, including concern about possible war crimes from UN human rights commissioner Volker Turk.

An Israeli military investigation into the incident released on Sunday "found no evidence to support claims of execution" or "indiscriminate fire" by its troops, but admitted to operational failures and said it was firing a field commander.

It said six of those killed were militants, revising an earlier claim that nine of the men were fighters.

The dead, who were buried in sand by Israeli forces, were only recovered several days after the attack from what the UN human rights agency OCHA described as a "mass grave".

The Palestine Red Crescent Society denounced the report as "full of lies".

"It is invalid and unacceptable, as it justifies the killing and shifts responsibility to a personal error in the field command when the truth is quite different," Nebal Farsakh, spokesperson for the Red Crescent, told AFP.

The Israeli investigation said there were three shooting incidents in the area on that day.

In the first, soldiers shot at what they believed to be a Hamas vehicle.

In the second, around an hour later, troops fired "on suspects emerging from a fire truck and ambulances", the military said.

The probe determined that the fire in the first two incidents resulted from an "operational misunderstanding by the troops".

In the third incident, the troops fired at a UN vehicle "due to operational errors in breach of regulations", the military said.