The Emirates and Israel agree to establish a banking and financial cooperation committee

Abdulhamid Saeed Alahmadi, Governor of the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates, and Ronen Peretz, Director General of the Israeli Prime Minister's office, signed a memorandum of understanding for future cooperation in the banking and financial sector. During a meeting held today in Abu Dhabi, the parties agreed to form bilateral working groups and committees to facilitate banking activity between the Emirates and Israel. The MoU was signed in the presence of Meir Ben-Shabbat, National Security Advisor and Head of the Israeli National Security Council.

This agreement is part of the normalisation of diplomatic relations between Israel and the Emirates. With the announcement of 13 August, the United Arab Emirates has become the third Arab country to have current relations with Israel, in addition to Egypt and Jordan. Since then progress has been fairly rapid. Among the latest measures adopted to formalise diplomatic relations is the repeal by the Emirates this Saturday of a federal law boycotting Israel, which established sanctions for anyone doing business with the country. This decision was applauded by Israel, which has stressed that the repeal of this law "is an important step towards peace that will bring about significant economic and commercial achievements" for both countries. This regulation implies that UAE citizens and companies will be able to do business and sign commercial or financial agreements with Israeli bodies and individuals.

This is, however, a controversial position on the complex Middle East chessboard. In the Palestinian world there is still reticence about the agreement. Thus, Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), has reproached the United Arab Emirates for the diplomatic agreement with Israel as it "does not do any favours" to the Palestinians. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, has also rejected the agreement and said that it "does not serve the Palestinian cause at all". "This encourages to continue denying the rights of our Palestinian people and to increase their aggressions against us", said Hazem Qassem, spokesperson of Hamas.