On the sidelines of a quadripartite meeting in Cyprus, Israeli Foreign Minister meets Gargash

Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi announced today, Friday, that he had met Anwar Gargash, the diplomatic adviser to the President of the United Arab Emirates, in Cyprus.

The meeting took place on the sidelines of a meeting of the foreign ministers of Israel, Cyprus and Greece, and the diplomatic adviser to the President of the United Arab Emirates, in Paphos, Cyprus, to discuss ways to develop the strategic and regional interests of their countries.

And Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi announced on Twitter that he was happy to meet Anwar Gargash on the sidelines of the Cyprus meeting.

Ashkenazi said he had discussed with the Emiratis the official ways to advance the implementation of the standardization agreements between the two countries, stressing that Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi are now seeing the fruits of cooperation in the fields of trade, economy, tourism and health.

In turn, Gargash said the strategic ties with Israel are aimed at strengthening regional security, adding that the Paphos talks are about economic and political coordination and the use of technology to fight the Corona virus.

After his meeting with his Cypriot counterpart, the Israeli foreign minister confirmed that he had discussed several issues with him, including Iranian activities in the Middle East.

He stressed that Israel would do “whatever is necessary” to ensure that Iran does not acquire nuclear weapons.

“The evolving regional cooperation network is creating a new discourse in a region full of turmoil, conflict and crisis,” Cypriot Foreign Minister Nikos Christo doulides said. Publicity

He added that the cooperation of the four countries is not directed against other countries in the region, stressing that all neighboring countries are invited to participate.

For his part, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, who visited Turkey on Thursday and Libya on Monday, reiterated the call for the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Libya, with reference to Turkish forces.

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Israeli media have said the quartet talks are the first of their kind and will discuss gas issues and the conflict with Iran and the International Criminal Court.

In turn, the Cypriot Foreign Ministry announced in a statement reported by the official Cypriot news agency that the participating ministers would hold a “joint meeting with the President of the Republic, Nikos Anastasiades, in Paphos”.

The Cypriot agency quoted the Cypriot Foreign Ministry’s statement that the quartet meeting could be organized after the recent normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

The statement added that the meeting aims to take advantage of the prospects that have emerged after this development to expand regional cooperation networks on the basis of a positive agenda.

In 2020, Israel and the United Arab Emirates signed an agreement to normalize diplomatic relations between the two countries, under the auspices of the United States.

The date of the quadripartite meeting comes after months of tensions between Turkey and its neighbors, in particular with Greece and Cyprus, over the exploration and exploitation of gas resources in the eastern Mediterranean.