Israel and the United States on Monday urged the UN Security Council to seize upon recent accords between Israel and Arab states for charting a new course towards Middle East peace.
Kelly Craft and Gilad Erdan, the UN envoys for the US and Israel, said normalisation between Sudan, the UAE and Bahrain and Israel offered a way to end decades-old enmity between Israel and the Palestinians.
While the UN and many governments have welcomed the diplomatic openings, some gave warnings against dropping a long-standing principle that any Israeli-Palestinian peace deal should grant the Palestinians their own independent state.
“Three historic agreements considered impossible to achieve were reached in just two months,” Mr Erdan said in his first address to the council as Israel’s ambassador.
“This council should embrace the accords and use them as a catalyst to promote peace and security in the region ... They disprove preconceived notions of peacemaking in the Middle East, and represent a new progressive, pragmatic approach that is not held hostage by the unrealistic demands of one side.”
At the weekend, Sudan became the third Arab government after the UAE and Bahrain to establish relations with Israel in the past two months, and only the fifth since 1948. Some major political groups in Sudan have since rejected the accord.
Ms Craft urged UN members to “embrace the opportunities presented by the Abraham Accords”, as they are known, and urged Palestinians to re-start talks with Israeli negotiators in line with a US-proposed peace plan.
“Today, because of American leadership, Israel is closer to its Arab neighbours than ever before. And the Palestinians, its direct neighbours, should take advantage of this positive momentum,” Ms Craft said.
“Opening direct ties between these three dynamic societies and advanced economies has incredible potential to transform the region. Normalisation will spur economic growth, enhanced technological innovation, foster interfaith dialogue and forge closer people-to-people relations.”
The Palestinians have rejected the US peace plan. They seek all of the West Bank and East Jerusalem – areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war – for an independent state and the removal of many of the estimated 700,000 Israeli settlers who built homes on those areas.
“You cannot end this conflict without freedom for the Palestinian people,” Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al Maliki told the council. “Our freedom will never be compatible with Israeli soldiers in our streets, Israeli drones in our skies and Israeli control over our borders.”
Jigra
Starring: Alia Bhatt, Vedang Raina, Manoj Pahwa, Harsh Singh
Student Of The Year 2
Director: Punit Malhotra
Stars: Tiger Shroff, Tara Sutaria, Ananya Pandey, Aditya Seal
1.5 stars
The specs
Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
Power: 640hp
Torque: 760nm
On sale: 2026
Price: Not announced yet
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%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%C2%A0Reinaldo%20Marcus%20Green%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%C2%A0%3C%2Fstrong%3EKingsley%20Ben-Adir%2C%20Lashana%20Lynch%2C%20James%20Norton%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%C2%A02%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Ultra processed foods
- Carbonated drinks, sweet or savoury packaged snacks, confectionery, mass-produced packaged breads and buns
- margarines and spreads; cookies, biscuits, pastries, cakes, and cake mixes, breakfast cereals, cereal and energy bars;
- energy drinks, milk drinks, fruit yoghurts and fruit drinks, cocoa drinks, meat and chicken extracts and instant sauces
- infant formulas and follow-on milks, health and slimming products such as powdered or fortified meal and dish substitutes,
- many ready-to-heat products including pre-prepared pies and pasta and pizza dishes, poultry and fish nuggets and sticks, sausages, burgers, hot dogs, and other reconstituted meat products, powdered and packaged instant soups, noodles and desserts.
GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh149,900
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Sam Smith
Where: du Arena, Abu Dhabi
When: Saturday November 24
Rating: 4/5
Global institutions: BlackRock and KKR
US-based BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager, with $5.98 trillion of assets under management as of the end of last year. The New York firm run by Larry Fink provides investment management services to institutional clients and retail investors including governments, sovereign wealth funds, corporations, banks and charitable foundations around the world, through a variety of investment vehicles.
KKR & Co, or Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, is a global private equity and investment firm with around $195 billion of assets as of the end of last year. The New York-based firm, founded by Henry Kravis and George Roberts, invests in multiple alternative asset classes through direct or fund-to-fund investments with a particular focus on infrastructure, technology, healthcare, real estate and energy.
Bio
Born in Dibba, Sharjah in 1972.
He is the eldest among 11 brothers and sisters.
He was educated in Sharjah schools and is a graduate of UAE University in Al Ain.
He has written poetry for 30 years and has had work published in local newspapers.
He likes all kinds of adventure movies that relate to his work.
His dream is a safe and preserved environment for all humankind.
His favourite book is The Quran, and 'Maze of Innovation and Creativity', written by his brother.
The Bloomberg Billionaire Index in full
1 Jeff Bezos $140 billion
2 Bill Gates $98.3 billion
3 Bernard Arnault $83.1 billion
4 Warren Buffett $83 billion
5 Amancio Ortega $67.9 billion
6 Mark Zuckerberg $67.3 billion
7 Larry Page $56.8 billion
8 Larry Ellison $56.1 billion
9 Sergey Brin $55.2 billion
10 Carlos Slim $55.2 billion
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