Will Suez Canal feel impact of UAE-Israel normalization?

Hani Sameer

Sep 25, 2020

This picture taken on November 17, 2019 shows the Liberia-flagged container ship RDO Concord sailing through Egypt's Suez Canal in the canal's central hub city of Ismailia on the 150th anniversary of the canal's inauguration. - One hundred and fifty years after the Suez Canal opened, the international waterway is hugely significant to the economy of modern-day Egypt, which nationalised it in 1956. The canal, dug in the 19th century using "rudimentary tools" and which links the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, — This picture shows the Liberia-flagged container ship RDO Concord sailing through the Suez Canal in the canal's central hub city of Ismailia on the 150th anniversary of the canal's inauguration, Egypt, Nov. 17, 2019. — KHALED DESOUKI/AFP via Getty Images

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain signed Sept. 15 an agreement to normalize relations with Israel at the White House, under the auspices of US President Donald Trump, who hailed it as “the dawn of a new Middle East.”

During the signing ceremony, UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan said that the fruits of this deal will be reflected in the entire region.

One of the immediate outputs of the normalization accord is an agreement signed between the Dubai state-owned DP World and Israel’s DoverTower to develop Israeli ports and free zones, and to open a direct shipping line between the Red Sea port of Eilat and Dubai’s Jebel Ali Port.

DoverTower is owned by Israeli businessman Shlomi Fogel, who is also a partner in the Eilat port.

Will Suez Canal feel impact of UAE-Israel normalization?

The potential economic agreements between the United Arab Emirates and Israel may reduce traffic through Egypt’s Suez Canal.

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