Telephone service between the United Arab Emirates and Israel has begun as the two countries opened diplomatic ties
Telephone calls began ringing Sunday between the United Arab Emirates and Israel, marking the first concrete step of a U.S.-brokered diplomatic deal between the nations that required Israel to halt plans to annex land sought by the Palestinians.
Anger over the deal, however, continued as well, with protesters in Pakistan criticizing the UAE and Iran making new threats about the accord, which will see the Emirates become only the third Arab nation to currently recognize Israel. The UAE responded by summoning Iran’s chargé d’affaires to criticize earlier comments by Iran’s president it described as threatening.worshiped for years at an unmarked villa in this city-state, the calls represented so much more than just the convenience of being able to directly dial loved ones in Israel. “There’s a sense of a miracle upon a miracle upon a miracle, as all of these hurdles fall away and people at last can come together and start talking,” said Ross Kriel, the president of the Jewish Council of the Emirates.Direct telephone calls to Israel have been blocked in the Emirates, a U.S.-allied federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula, since its founding in 1971. That backed the standing position of Arab nations at the time, that Israel must first grant concessions to the Palestinians before being recognized — one of their few points of leverage. Since Thursday’s announcements, Associated Press journalists had tried to make calls between the nations without success. But around 1:15 p.m. Sunday, AP journalists in Jerusalem and Dubai could call each other from landline and cellular phones registered to Israel’s country code, +972. Over an hour later, Emirati officials acknowledged that Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al Nahyan had called his Israeli counterpart, Gabi Ashkenazi. The Israelis later acknowledged the call as well, saying the block had been lifted from the Emiratis’ side. Israeli Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel issued a statement “congratulating the United Arab Emirates on removing the blocks.”“Many economic opportunities will open now, and these trust-building steps are an important step toward advancing states’ interests,” Hendel said. Also Sunday, Israeli news websites that had previously been blocked by UAE authorities, including the Times of Israel, the Jerusalem Post and YNet, could be accessed without using means to bypass internet filtering in the Emirates. In the UAE, before Sunday, a recorded message in Arabic and English would typically play saying calls to +972 numbers could not be connected. The advent of internet calling allowed people to get around the ban, although those calls too were often interrupted. Some in Israel used Palestinian mobile phone numbers with +970 numbers, which those in the UAE could call.in the U.S.-brokered accord. The historic deal delivered a foreign policy victory to President Trump as he seeks reelection and reflected a changing Middle East in which shared concerns about archenemy Iran have largely overtaken traditional Arab support for the Palestinians.
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