UAE's Gargash says maximalist views on Palestinian issues are no longer valid

Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the United Arab Emirates president, said on Wednesday that maximalist views on the Palestinian issues are no longer valid, emphasizing the need for security for Israel alongside the establishment of a viable Palestinian state.

“Are we going to continue with this sort of maximalist views on how to address the Palestinian issue, for example, by the Israeli right, which has to understand that this is not going to go away," said Gargash at an interview at the Reuters NEXT Gulf Summit in Abu Dhabi.

"Direct confrontation has not yielded results for Israelis or Palestinians," said Gargash, who served as the UAE's minister of state for foreign affairs from 2008 to 2021.

Gargash, an important player in U.S.-brokered normalisation deals between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and several Arab states in 2020, said that any annexation in the Palestinian territories would be considered a "red line".