Trump to host Israeli, Arab leaders for historic peace signing

UAE and Bahrain to sign the Abraham Accords with Israel at the White House Tuesday, as the two Arab nations establish full relations with the Jewish State.

By Paul Shindman, World Israel News

More than 700 diplomats, officials and invited dignitaries are expected to arrive at the White House Tuesday for the historic signing of peace accords between Israel and two Gulf Arab states, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

“The President requests the pleasure of your company at the Abraham Accords Signing Ceremony to be held at The White House,” read the invitation sent to an estimated 1,000 people who will gather on the White House lawn for the noon-hour ceremony with the weather expected to cooperate under partly cloudy skies and pleasant temperatures.

“This is a great turning point in the history of Israel and in the history of the Middle East. It will have a great and positive effect on every citizen of Israel,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement issued shortly after his arrival Sunday in Washington. “I also promise you, according to what I see here, that additional countries are on the way.”

Netanyahu and the UAE and Bahraini foreign ministers will sign the documents, named the “Abraham Accords” after the patriarch of the world’s three major monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Along with the establishment of Israel-UAE and Israel-Bahrain diplomatic ties, the three countries will also ink a trilateral accord with President Donald Trump signing as a witness.

The ceremony is the culmination of several breakthrough announcements that started a month ago when President Trump announced that the UAE and Israel would establish diplomatic relations and that several other countries were expected to follow suit.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo then visited the region in a bid to find other countries who had endorsed the Israel-UAE peace deal including Sudan, Bahrain and Oman.

On September 11, it was announced that Bahrain would join the White House ceremony with the two Gulf countries becoming the third and fourth Arab states to establish diplomatic relations with Israel after Egypt and Jordan.

Although Saudi Arabia has refrained from commenting directly on the agreements and has not said if it will also establish formal ties with Israel, the Saudis made a surprise announcement two weeks ago that they would allow flights to and from all countries going to the UAE to traverse their airspace.

The Saudis had historically boycotted Israel and banned flights to and from Tel Aviv from overflying their territory, adding several hours to flights from Israel to the Far East.