United Arab Emirates cites Israels West Bank annexation as a bid to cross the Abraham Accords.

Sept 2025 : Israel’s plans to annex parts of the West Bank put the Abraham Accords in jeopardy, according to a top Emirati official. In August, Israel’s finance minister said that work would start on a long-delayed settlement that would divide the West Bank and cut it off from East Jerusalem, a move his office said would “bury” the idea of a Palestinian state. The Palestinian government, its allies, and human rights activists condemned the proposal, calling it illegal. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet with his cabinet ministers this week to discuss advancing the plans.

“Annexation would be a red line for my government, and that means there can be no lasting peace. It would foreclose the idea of regional integration and be the death knell of the two-state solution”, Emirati special envoy Lana Nusseibeh told media houses in an interview conducted in the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abu Dhabi. It is regarded to be a shocking alarm bell from Abu Dhabi ahead of the fifth anniversary of the Abraham Accords, which the UAE initiated by becoming the first Arab country to normalize relations with Israel in over a quarter-century. Since then, Emirati officials have insisted that the move was an all-but-irreversible strategic choice, making Nusseibeh’s warning particularly dramatic, as it highlighted how averse the Gulf country is to Israel again considering annexation.

Netanyahu ultimately walked back from the annexation threat in exchange for diplomatic ties with Abu Dhabi in a deal brokered by US President Donald Trump’s first administration, but as per revealed information from official sources, that the UAE only secured a US commitment not to back Israeli annexation until the end of Trump’s term. Apparently recognising the move would carry less weight without US backing, Netanyahu hasn’t gone ahead with it since.

“We believe that President Trump and his administration have many of the levers to lead the initiative for a wider integration of Israel into the region”, said the Emirati official, who serves as assistant minister for political affairs and special envoy for UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed.

While the senior Emirati official warned about what Israel stood to lose if it proceeded with annexation, she also made a point of highlighting what Jerusalem could gain if it again shelved the plan.

Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, are still open to normalizing ties with Jerusalem, she indicated.

But they are conditioning such a move not just on the withdrawal of annexation plans but on Israel agreeing to establish a credible, irreversible pathway to a future Palestinian state. Still, they haven’t foreclosed the idea entirely, despite massive opposition to Israel’s prosecution of its nearly two-year war against Hamas.

Team Maverick