114: UAE's evolving diplomacy, what's the state of the Abraham Accords. Should Israel be worried?

Jonny Gould's Jewish State

This episode of Jonny Gould’s Jewish State focuses on the United Arab Emirates.

The UAE is asserting itself diplomatically on the regional and world stage. Should Israel be worried about the swirling winds of interests in the region?

The Emiratis have followed Saudi Arabia in re-establishing diplomatic ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran - and Syria has been welcomed back into the Arab League fold, despite Bashar al Assad’s brutal and bloody decade-long civil war.

Furthermore, Assad has been invited by the hosts to the forthcoming COP28 conference in Dubai, posing a diplomatic problem for Western leaders to avoid being in the same room as him. After the euphoria of normalization in September 2020, Jonny takes the temperature of the Abraham Accords and wonders where the UAE's stunning rapprochements with former foes in the Middle East leaves Israel?

In preparation for this episode, Jonny went to the Israeli Embassy in London, and spoke exclusively to the Ambassador, Tzipi Hotovely and deputy mayor of Jerusalem, Fleur Hassan-Nahoum. Also in this episode, we hear a stunning rebuttal to European criticism of the UAE hosting COP28 from Majid Jafar, CEO of Crescent Petroleum, the Middle East's oldest privately held oil and gas company. As the world works towards the energy transition, should one of the world’s leading oil and gas providers be hosting it at all? You’ll get your answer here. And what if Labour get elected in the UK in 2024? We hear their policy about future oil exploration in the North Sea.

This really is a time of change. Let’s try to get some answers in this episode.

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