Israel Strikes Historic Peace Deal With the UAE

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: You know, the last time we spoke, your prime minister was on the verge of annexing the West Bank. And you said that this would be a disaster for Israel, and you were hoping that the U.S. would persuade him not to. Can you tell me how this all fits in now, this jigsaw puzzle?

TZIPI LIVNI, FORMER ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER: Yes. My feeling today is that we are having too good news in one toking. I mean, on one hand, Netanyahu decided or agreed to suspend the annexation, and I believe this is good news, because there is hope for peace with the Palestinians. And yet, we are having peace and normalization with the Emirates. And for many years, you know, discrete relations with them as a state, and also personally as a foreign minister and now to have this public, I believe that this sends a very good news to the region. And I do hope that this can open a new door for negotiations with the Palestinians, because as an Israeli, I believe peace with the Palestinians is important for Israel as well.

AMANPOUR: I’m going to get to that in a second. But you mentioned that you’ve had discreet relations with the UAE when you were foreign minister. I mean, that goes back a long time, more 10 ten years now. You were foreign minister between 2006 and 2009.

LIVNI: Yes.

AMANPOUR: But I also understand that you were one of the last major Israelis. I mean, nine months ago you met with the foreign minister of the UAE. How long has this been going on? And was it a deal that was crafted between the two parties or did the United States craft this deal?

LIVNI: Well, for many years we had understanding that Israel is not the enemy anymore, but — and Iran is basically the common threat, but they had their glass ceiling in the relations with Israel and this was the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. And therefore, the relations between Israel and also, as you mentioned, personally as a foreign minister not only with them, but with different guard stem was discreet meetings. Just — I was foreign minister since 2006. So, we are talking about many years ago, but also in just a few months ago, I visited — well, not in office, not an official visit, but I visited Abu Dhabi with their invitation, a few — just a year ago, I visited Manama, Bahrain. So, we could see some signals that we have better relations and maybe it will be more public and we can reach normalization.