The UAE embassy in Tel Aviv marked the two-year anniversary of the Abraham Accords, in a ceremony held on Thursday in the presence of Israeli President Isaac Herzog and UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, along with senior Israeli and UAE officials.
The celebration unveiled remarkable progress in the Emirati-Israeli relations in various fields, with trade exchange reaching the value of $2 billion.
Sheikh Abdullah underlined that the bilateral relations opened a new page in history and promoted a culture of peace towards building a new Middle East. He expressed confidence that the Abraham Accords would greatly contribute to advancing the peace process between Israel and the Palestinian people.
Earlier on Thursday, the Israeli president received Sheikh Abdullah at his official residence and threw a lunch banquet in his honor.
The UAE foreign minister headed a delegation that included Minister of State for International Cooperation Reem Ebrahim Al-Hashemi and the Minister of Youth and Culture, Noura Mohammad Al-Kaabi. The meeting was also attended by the Emirati Ambassador in Tel Aviv, Mohammed Al-Khaja.
The Abraham Accords were announced on Aug. 13, 2020, by former US President Donald Trump, after long weeks of frantic and secret diplomatic efforts.
On Sept. 15 of the same year, the agreements were signed between Israel on the one hand and the UAE and Bahrain on the other, in the courtyard of the White House in Washington.
Within four months of the announcement, political agreements were signed between Israel, Sudan and Morocco.
Direct flights were launched between Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Manama, Casablanca and Marrakesh, and many ministers, military officials, politicians and economists from all these countries paid reciprocal visits and signed cooperation agreements in several fields.
Within two years, the volume of trade exchange between Israel and the UAE amounted to about $2 billion.
