No date set for cabinet vote on UAE peace

The Prime Minister’s Office has yet to set a date for a cabinet vote to ratify the agreement Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed with the United Arab Emirates.Netanyahu promised Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi that the matter would go to the cabinet the night before the signing last Tuesday, when he signed a document granting Netanyahu the power to sign an agreement that is legally in the Foreign Ministry’s purview.A spokesman for Ashkenazi said that it may be on the agenda for next week.Prime Minister’s Office legal adviser Shlomit Barnea Pargo said last week that the agreement will not go into effect until approved by the cabinet. She also said Netanyahu plans to propose to the cabinet that it be brought before the Knesset.The agreement in question, “Abraham Accords Peace Agreement: Treaty of Peace, Diplomatic Relations and Full Normalization between the United Arab Emirates and the State of Israel,” states that “this treaty shall be ratified by both parties as soon as practicable in conformity with their respective national procedures and will enter into force following the exchange of instruments of ratification.”Israel’s agreement with Bahrain, which Netanyahu also signed last Tuesday, is a declaration of intent and not a peace treaty, due to timing issues. As such, it does not need to be brought before the government until a full treaty is agreed upon.Meretz MK Yair Golan demanded on Monday that the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee be allowed to see the agreements that Netanyahu signed with the UAE and Bahrain.Golan, who is a former deputy chief of staff of the IDF, said the agreements must be reviewed to guarantee that Israel kept its qualitative military edge (QME) in the deals.The texts of the agreements were made public last Tuesday and do not involve weapons sales. Some of Netanyahu’s critics have accused him of secretly agreeing that the US can sell F-35 jets and other advanced weapons to the UAE, though both Netanyahu and the Emirati leadership deny that the matter came up in negotiations.

UAE officials have said, however, that they hope peace with Israel will work to their advantage in trying to buy the warplanes they have long sought, and US officials have said they are looking for ways to sell the jets while maintaining Israel’s QME.Coalition chairman Miki Zohar said he had not yet received word from the prime minister about bringing the agreements to the Knesset. A source close to Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Zvi Hauser said he was looking into the matter.