The United Arab Emirates has warned that the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza posed a real risk of regional spillover, adding that it was working “relentlessly” to secure a humanitarian ceasefire.
The UAE was the most visible Arab country to sign the 2020 Abraham Accords, a series of agreements with Israel that the latter hoped would pave the way for normalization of relations with Muslim superpower Saudi Arabia, but the war derailed those plans.
“As we continue working to stop this war we cannot ignore the wider context and the necessity to turn down the regional temperature that is approaching a boiling point,” Noura al-Kaabi, a Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, told a policy conference in the Capital, Abu Dhabi.
“The risk of regional spillover and further escalation is real, as well as the risk that extremist groups will take advantage of the situation to advance ideologies that will keep us locked in cycles of violence.”
“Every effort must be made to protect civilians and immediately put an end to this conflict,” Kaabi added.
