Viacheslav Shved
PhD in History, Associate Professor, Head of the Department of History of Asia and Africa of the State Institution ‘Institute of World History of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine’; ORCID: 0000-0001-7344-9384
DOI:
Abstract. This article examines the continuation of the normalisation process between the Arabian monarchies and Israel during the war in Gaza and how this factor influences Ukraine’s foreign policy.
The Arabian monarchies have maintained their strategic course towards rapprochement and normalisation with Israel despite various internal and external challenges. However, the scope and focus of the negotiations with the United States and Israel on the prospects for such normalisation noticeably changed over time. At the moment of the signing of the Abraham Accords in 2020, the Palestinian issue was effectively not on the agenda for Israel, United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain. The situation changed fundamentally following the outbreak of the war in Gaza: the Palestinian issue took centre stage in the negotiations on normalisation of the relations between the Arabian monarchies and Israel.
Moreover, the unprecedented direct Iranian missile attack against Israel in April 2024 led to the effective consolidation of the anti-Iranian coalition in the Middle East and the acceleration of the normalisation negotiations. Persistent work of American diplomacy with Saudi Arabia, other Arab states in the region, and Israel subsequently created the groundwork for a potential future trilateral American-Saudi-Israeli defence pact.
During the war in Gaza, Ukrainian diplomacy outlined the key parameters of its Middle East foreign policy, which includes supporting the establishment of a Palestinian state as a guarantee of regional peace based on a two-state resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Keywords: Arabian monarchies, Israel, United States, the war in Gaza, normalisation, trilateral defence pact, the Palestinian issue.
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