President Donald Trump announced Thursday that Israel and the United Arab Emirates have reached a "historic" peace agreement.
As part of the deal, Israel will “suspend” plans to annex parts of the West Bank, according to a joint Israel-UAE-US statement that Trump tweeted Thursday morning.
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he had a call with the leaders from both countries who had agreed to exchange embassies and ambassadors and “begin cooperation across the board.” He said he expected other countries to follow the UAE's lead on normalizing relations going forward.
“We are already discussing this with other nations,” Trump said. “So you will probably see other of these.”
Trump tweeted out a lengthy joint statement between the US, UAE and Israel, calling the agreement to “full normalization of relations” between Israel and the UAE a “historic diplomatic breakthrough.”
The statement said that the normalization of relations “will bring together two of America's most reliable and capable regional partners” and the nations will join together with the US to launch a strategic agenda for the Middle East on diplomatic, trade and security cooperation.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu weighed in on the announcement with a tweet, quoting Trump's tweet and writing, “A historic day” in Hebrew.
US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman congratulated the President on the agreement in the Oval Office.
Trump said he wanted it to be called the Donald J. Trump Accord. He then asked Avi Berkowitz, a White House adviser and special representative for international negotiations, to speak. Berkowitz said: “Peace is a beautiful thing.”
Trump said his adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner has done a “great thing” and “people don't always understand what he's able to do.” Kushner then spoke and said Trump instructed him to take “an untraditional approach.” He spoke at length about the agreement.
National security adviser Robert O'Brien added that the Middle East was a “mess” when Trump took office and this is another step to fix that.
