Abraham Accords created huge excitement among Israel business community

Ze'ev Lavie, Vice President of International Relations and Business Development at the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce, said that the signing of the Abraham Accords has given Israel the ability to access the UAE markets following which a whole new world has been opened for Israel.

Tel Aviv: The signing of the Abraham Accords created huge excitement among the Israel business community nearly two months after the historic deal was clinched between Israel, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), said Ze'ev Lavie, Vice President of International Relations and Business Development at the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce.

Speaking during a virtual interaction with Lior Haiat, Spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel, Lavie said the Israeli companies earlier were blocked from doing business with the companies in the UAE and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

"Earlier, the Israeli had to have a foreign passport to be able to do business with foreign companies. We were blocked by UAE and the GCC members. However, with the signing of the Abraham Accords, a whole new world has opened for us," Lavie said.

Read:|Israeli airline announces direct flights to Dubai

This discussion comes ahead of the tripartite Bahraini-Israeli-US meeting that will take place on Wednesday in Jerusalem. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Alzayani and his US counterpart, Michael Pompeo will be participating in the meeting.

The first-ever commercial flight from Bahrain to Israel landed at Ben Gurion International Airport at 10:30 am local time (08:30 GMT), Sputnik reported.

Citing Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, Sputnik reported that the parties are due to sign a series of cooperation agreements between Israel and Bahrain in various fields, including the opening of diplomatic missions and the implementation of direct flights between the two countries.

The historic deal was signed on September 15 between Israel, Bahrain and the UAE. US President Donald Trump had bagged the deal.

The deal broke a decade-long status-quo where Arab states have remained united against Israel on its treatment of the Palestinians.

The deal was signed following King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain on September 11 officially agreeing to normalise relations with Israel, in a trilateral phone conversation with US President Donald Trump and Netanyahu.

Read:|Israel to sign visa exemption deal with UAE

The move came after the UAE and Israel agreed to normalise relations in August. The first two Arab countries to recognise Israel were Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994.

ANI