At UN, UAE warns against Israeli annexation, calls for Palestinian state ‘with no place for terrorists’

Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly, a senior Emirati official says Israeli calls to annex the West Bank are “unacceptable,” condemns Israel’s recent strike targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar and calls for a Palestinian state without terrorists and with restrictions on weapons.

The speech by Lana Nusseibeh is significant because the UAE normalized relations with Israel five years ago, and recently issued a warning that Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank would be a “red line.”

Her speech follows other speeches by Arab leaders at the UN who castigated Israel and, in multiple cases, accused it of “genocide” in Gaza.

Nusseibeh’s speech does not make that accusation, though she says that “nothing can justify targeting tens of thousands of civilians or besieging them or starving them and forcibly displacing them.”

“Nor can anything excuse the pursuit of unacceptable expansionist ambitions, including the threat of annexing the West Bank,” continues Nusseibeh, who serves as minister of state in the UAE foreign affairs ministry.

Unlike other Middle Eastern dignitaries, however, she also devotes time in her speech to condemning the taking of hostages, a likely reference to those held by Hamas in Gaza.

“There is no justification for the taking of hostages or the targeting of civilians in conflict,” she says. “We emphasize the need to protect the hostages as per international humanitarian law.”

She calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state “living side by side with Israel in security, peace and prosperity,” notably saying that conditions for its establishment should include “restricting the use of weapons.”

She adds that a future two-state outcome should have “no place for terrorists and extremist groups.”

She fiercely condemns Israel’s attack earlier this month in Doha, which targeted Hamas’s leaders. The strike is widely believed to have failed.

“Israel’s treacherous and reprehensible attack against the State of Qatar constituted a flagrant violation of its territorial integrity and of the security of the Arabian Gulf region, as well as a breach of the most fundamental principles of international law,” she says. “Aggression will not bring stability to the region.”