Israel to Sign Normalization Agreement With Sudan, Closing in on COVID-19 Vaccine

The United Arab Emirates cabinet has officially green-lighted the agreement to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel as announced last month, with a senior UAE government delegation landing in Israel on Tuesday.

Concurrently, the Emirati delegation has moved to sign a visa waiver treaty in Tel Aviv, the first time Israel has signed an agreement of this sort with an Arab country.

After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received the delegation at Ben Gurion airport, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and two ministers from the United Arab Emirates attended the historic accord-signing.

Earlier in the day, a joint statement issued by the US embassy in Israel from the UAE, Israel and the US announced the establishment of ‘The Abraham Fund,’ a fund in excess $3 billion in order channel investment to projects that “promote regional economic cooperation and prosperity in the Middle East and beyond.”

“The fund will enable its members to launch people-focused investments, providing opportunity and hope for the region and its youth by enabling them to build a future that serves them and their communities,” the statement read.

Defense minister Benny Gantz has announced that a potential COVID-19 vaccine developed in Israel would commence human testing by the end of October.

After visiting Israel’s Institute for Biological Research and sitting down with its director, Prof. Shmuel C. Shapira, Gantz revealed that the name of the vaccine would be Brilife, a portmanteau of life and bri’ut, the Hebrew word for health.

The news comes after a report published by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, together with the Health Ministry and the Gertner Institute, showed that only 80% of people who tested positive for coronavirus had developed antibodies.

“We are at a very significant moment,” Gantz told the media. “Prof. Shapira and the entire team have done fantastic work. They are at the scientific vanguard of the State of Israel and they have brought this vaccine to the stage where we can soon begin trials on human beings.”

Jerusalem and Khartoum are to sign an historic normalization agreement, a day after President Donald Trump announced he will have Sudan removed from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism.

President Trump on Monday said the move is conditioned on Sudan following through on a promise to pay over $330 million to American victims of terror. Reports suggest that Washington issued Khartoum a 24-hour ultimatum to normalize ties with the Jewish State.