United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi today inaugurated a phone link between the United Arab Emirates and the State of Israel following the normalization agreement signed on Friday between the two countries, UAE Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hend Al Otaiba announced.
In addition, restrictions on Israeli websites in UAE were removed.
Anwar Gargash, the United Arab Emirates Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, on Friday told the Walla! Hebrew language news website that his country wants to implement the normalization agreement with Israel quickly.
"I think the teams will meet as quickly as possible to discuss issues that interest us and interest you," he said. "We are not talking about a slow and gradual process. Our idea is to move forward. I will not surprise you if I say that the issues that interest us are agriculture, food security, cyber defense, tourism, technology. I am sure Israelis also have a list. We are the two largest economies in the region."
Gargash stressed that the step taken by the United Arab Emirates would be a milestone in relations between Israel and the Arab world. "We have to work very hard for this to be a success," he said. "We have seen a lot of milestones in our region that have not been a success. We have already learned in our region that a message itself does not yet become an instant success."