UAE, Bahrain recognize Israel, more nations to join, Trump says
Nathan King
02:21

The White House-brokered normalization deal between the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain with Israel is a rare diplomatic breakthrough for the Trump administration—just weeks before an election. President Trump said more Arab Nations are set to join.

"We have at least five or six countries coming along very quickly. We're already talking to them and they wanna see peace they've been fighting for a long time. They're tired. They are warring countries but they're tired. They're tired of fighting. So, you are going to be seeing further announcements," Trump said.

The fact that both the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain were represented by their foreign ministers and not heads of state signals the divisions in their respective nations over this deal. 

Saudi Arabia has remained silent on the move to recognize Israel without a deal with the Palestinians and much of the Arab world is suspicious, but the UAE foreign minister heralded the deal.

"We are witnessing today a new trend that will create a better path for the Middle East," said UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

The Emirates stressed that this deal with Israel rested on the Netanyahu government freezing the planned annexation of occupied Palestinian territory settled by Jewish families.

Israel has not made a full public commitment on that front. Bahrain's foreign minister stressed that Israel could only find true peace in the region when Palestinians had a fully-functioning state of its own, existing side-by-side with Israel - the long-elusive two-state solution.

The Palestinians have called this move by two the two Arab nations a "stab in the back."

But this diplomatic breakthrough is more about Iran. Gulf Arab countries like the UAE and Bahrain agree with Israeli and the current U.S. administration's policy of isolating Iran and withdrawing from the nuclear deal. This was a diplomatic prize for that effort.

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