Russia on Wednesday outlined plans to reinvigorate the stalled peace process between Palestinians and Israelis by inviting Arab ministers to talks on the decades-old conflict with the UN, US and EU in the coming months.
Russia's deputy UN ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy said that Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain could join the Quartet grouping of the US, EU, Russia and the UN for a "Quartet plus" ministerial-level video conference in the late spring or early summer.
Mr Polyanskiy described an opportunity for renewed diplomacy after "encouraging initial signals" from US President Joe Biden, who has quickly distanced himself from the previous Trump administration's deal-making, which favoured Israel and was rejected by Palestinians.
"Now we see some encouraging signals from the new administration that would be more devoted to collective efforts and formats. And we think that the Quartet is the most becoming framework for this," Mr Polyanskiy said.
“We think that regional players are also very much welcome to bring added value to this work.”
At UN Security Council talks this week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the talks would offer a “platform for carrying out a complete analysis of the situation and helping countries to launch a dialogue”.
The plan brings together Jordan and Egypt, which have long-standing peace treaties with Israel, as well as Bahrain and the UAE, which agreed to normalise relations with Israel last year in deals brokered by the Trump administration.
"If there is a genuine wish for normalisation of relations between certain Arab countries and Israel, we could only welcome this trend," Mr Polyanskiy said in response to a question from The National.
Moscow was engaging with Arab diplomats about the talks, he said.
China voiced support for Russia's plan, and UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the organisation would "analyse the proposal".
"We've always called for a renewal of the activities of the Quartet, which is something that we hope we will see," Mr Dujarric said.
Under Mr Trump, the US cut financial aid to Palestinians, recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital and moved the US embassy to the city, a series of moves that sought to pressure Palestinians to agree to the former president's so-called deal of the century.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected Mr Trump's deal. Instead, he called for an international conference on Palestinian-Israeli tension, but Israeli officials say the conflict will be resolved only through direct talks between the two sides.
The Biden administration said this week it would renew its broken relationship with the Palestinians, and that it would restore funding to Palestinian refugees and reopen Palestinian offices that were closed in the Trump era.
UAE central contracts
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Rohan Mustafa, Ahmed Raza, Mohammed Usman, Chirag Suri, Mohammed Boota, Sultan Ahmed, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Waheed Ahmed, Zawar Farid
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PROFILE OF HALAN
Started: November 2017
Founders: Mounir Nakhla, Ahmed Mohsen and Mohamed Aboulnaga
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport and logistics
Size: 150 employees
Investment: approximately $8 million
Investors include: Singapore’s Battery Road Digital Holdings, Egypt’s Algebra Ventures, Uber co-founder and former CTO Oscar Salazar
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Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi
From: Dara
To: Team@
Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT
Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East
Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.
Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.
I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.
This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.
It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.
Uber on,
Dara
