Dubai Security Head Does not Believe of the Creation of Palestinian State

• 03.22.2016, 11:58
•  Near East,  World

washingtonpost.com

Recently Twitter has become a tool for many officials to express their opinion or position regarding this or that question. These opinions are generally being considered as official ones. Right yesterday, on March 21, the tweet of the Head of General security for the Dubai Emirate, Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan Tamim was one of those that shocked many. He stated that Palestine should abandon their aspiration for an independent state and merge with Israeli Jews in a united, bi-national state instead. To hear such a statement by an official of an Arab state is quite strange, but the head of the General security said that "Palestinian state led by Arabs would join the list of failed states in the Arab world," the Jerusalem Post reports. According to him Israel will never recognize Palestine, suggesting to have a bi-national state - joint Jewish-Palestinian state under Israeli leadership.

The surprise from this tweet changes into a mild smile when we read the next tweet of Tamim: "Seventy years after the bi-national state would be established, the Arab minority would become the majority and rule the state, just like it happened in South Africa." Not a bad strategy…

It should be reminded that Israel has full diplomatic relations with only two Arab states – Egypt and Jordan. As for the United Arab Emirats, then Israel until the November of this year intends to have diplomatic presence in the UAE. The Jewish state will open an office in Abu Dhabi, the Emirati capital, accredited to the International Renewable Energy Agency, and not the UAE itself, ft.com writes. "We never had a permanent office on the soil of the UAE, but this is not an embassy to the UAE," said a senior Israeli official. Having a permanent office in the UAE is of no surprise, as it was still in 2014 that the Infrastructure Minister of Israel declared about intentions to establish a permanent Israeli mission to International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

Though the UAE does not recognize the state of Israel, the two countries have several common concerns – the rise of the role of Iram in the region after lifting the sanctions and rise of Sunni fundamentalist groups in the region, which does not exclude future cooperation of these countries.