Trump called on MBZ to 'encourage other Arab states to normalise with Israel'

Trump asked UAE day-to-day ruler MBZ to push for more regional agreements with Israel, a report said.

2 min read

13 October, 2020

The UAE and Israel officially signed a US-brokered normalisation deal in September. [Getty]

US President Donald Trump asked Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Zayed to encourage other Arab nations to normalise relations with Israel, Arab48 reported on Monday.

Citing a statement attributed to Judd Deere, deputy assistant to Trump and White House deputy press secretary, the report said Trump and Bin Zayed, colloquially known by his initials as MBZ, spoke in a recent phonecall.

Deere reportedly said that Trump asked MBZ to encourage other countries in the Middle East to follow suit after the UAE signed a normalisation deal with Israel.

MBZ congratulated Trump on his recovery from coronavirus infection, the report cited Deere as saying, while Trump thanked him for his "leadership" role in talks with Israel, which also lead to an agreement signed between the Jewish state and Bahrain.

The US has also pressured Sudan to normalise ties with Israel by offering to remove the former from US terror listing in return.

Read also: Netanyahu and MbZ may pray together at Al-Aqsa, Israeli media suggests

In comments on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said MBZ is set to "visit soon" in what follows a so-called historic normalisation deal signed between the UAE and Israel on September 15 - a move that has angered Palestinians.

The UAE and Bahrain became the third and fourth Arab countries respectively to establish diplomatic ties with Israel, after Egypt and Jordan.