Reuters reported last week that Israeli Energy Minister Silvan Shalom will attend the Jan. 20-22 World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, the latest in what is becoming a steady stream of evidence signaling warming ties between Jerusalem and traditional U.S. allies in the Arab world.
Energy Minister Silvan Shalom is set to attend the Jan. 20-22 World Future Energy Summit accompanied by two advisers, Foreign Ministry officials and a number of representatives from the private sector, his media adviser said…The visit could also signal an improvement in ties between Israel and the Gulf states due to their shared concern about Iran’s nuclear drive. Iran denies it is seeking atomic weapons and says its nuclear programme is purely peaceful.
The visit will mark the first official Israeli delegation since 2010 to the United Arab Emirates, a Gulf country whose leaders have become increasingly vocal in calling attention to Iranian territorial claims throughout the Gulf. The news comes alongside analysis published Friday by Washington Institute fellow Ehud Yaari describing how shared risks from Hamas and Sinai jihadists have created a new environment of cooperation.
These Egyptian concerns — coupled with Israel’s fear that the same terrorists might attack its own shipping route in the Gulf of Aqaba, as well as Eilat Airport and various population centers along the 250-kilometer frontier — have laid a solid base for the kind of deep bilateral cooperation now witnessed in the Sinai. The level of coordination and exchange of information is at an all-time high, and top commanders from both countries are now in almost daily communication.
Deepening cooperation between Israel and Arab countries has been taken as part and parcel of a broader dynamic that has seen the solidification of three regional Middle East blocs. Alongside a camp made up of Israel and the U.S.’s Arab allies, there has been an increasingly explicit emphasis on a transnational “resistance” bloc anchored by Iran, while a third camp of relatively extreme Sunni entities – Turkey, Qatar, the Muslim Brotherhood, various jihadist groups – has mostly opposed but opportunistically cooperated with the other two blocs. Analysts are divided over how the U.S. can navigate the emerging geopolitical reality. Repeated gambles on using Turkey to mediate U.S. interests in the regional have floundered, and Washington has at times seemed to proactively distance itself from security cooperation with its Arab allies. Recent weeks have seen growing criticism that the result is a de facto U.S. alignment with Iranian interests and moves.
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