ISRAEL OFFICIAL REVEALS MEGA RAILWAY PROJECT TO UAE

Mon 22 March 2021:

Head of Israeli National Economic Council Avi Simhon has revealed that Israel and the UAE are planning to establish a railway project linking Abu Dhabi with Haifa, Sama news agency reported yesterday.

According to the news site, Simhon told the Hebrew press that the two countries are studying several mega infrastructure projects, including this railway.

Simhon also said that this railway would travel through Jordan and Saudi Arabia, noting that there is a great opportunity for carrying out this project as most of the railway already exists except between 200 to 300 kilometres in Jordan.

Carrying out this project, Simhon said, will help Israel transport its goods to the UAE in one or two days instead of shipping through the Suez Canal which takes about 12 days. Fresh vegetables will then be exported to the UAE markets more easily. The project is backed by the US, Simhon explained, because it will help inject funding into the Jordanian economy which is in desperate need.

On 13 August, former US President Donald Trump announced a peace deal between the UAE and Israel brokered by Washington.

Abu Dhabi said the deal was an effort to stave off Tel Aviv’s planned annexation of the occupied West Bank, however, opponents believe normalisation efforts have been in the offing for many years as Israeli officials have made official visits to the UAE and attended conferences in the country which had no diplomatic or other ties with the occupation state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu however denied the UAE’s claims saying annexation is not off the table but has simply been delayed.