First meeting of Israeli and UAE foreign ministers to begin in Berlin

The foreign ministers of Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will meet for the first time on Tuesday in Berlin, three weeks after the countries signed an agreement to normalize relations.

Germany's Foreign Minister Heiko Maas will receive Israeli Gabi Ashkenazi and Emirati Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan in the afternoon with statements scheduled for 5 pm (1500 GMT).

"It is a great honour that the Israeli and Emirati foreign ministers have chosen Berlin as the venue for their historic first meeting," Maas said before the meeting, thanking both colleagues for their trust.

The "courageous peace agreement" between Israel and the Emirates was the first good news in the Middle East for a long time and at the same time an opportunity for new movement in the dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians, he said.

Maas hoped "that Berlin would provide a good framework for discussing further steps along this path."

The meetings come after the foreign ministers of the UAE and Bahrain sealed the establishment of diplomatic relations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on September 15.

The signing took place in the presence of US President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington.

There are now four Arab countries, including Egypt and Jordan, which have diplomatic relations with Israel.

The latest agreements were seen as a betrayal by Palestinians as Arab states had previously insisted on the finding of a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a condition for normalizing relations.

Instead, Israel agreed only to suspend the planned annexation of territories in the occupied West Bank, which the Palestinians claim for their own state.