Israeli parliament backs UAE normalisation deal

Israel's parliament voted on Thursday in favour of the normalisation of ties with the United Arab Emirates after a marathon debate with over 100 speeches lasting more than eight hours.

A total of 80 MPs voted to approve the US-brokered agreements, with 13 lawmakers, all from the Arab Joint List political alliance, voting against.

"This historic agreement... will bring us closer to other countries in the region to sign other peace agreements," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu said Israel had contact recently with another country in the region for the first time, but did not reveal its name.

Read also: Israel normalisation deals reflect the rupture between repressive regimes and Arab societies

The UAE in August became the first Arab nation to establish relations with Israel since Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994, followed in September by Bahrain.

Palestinians have condemned the recent deals as a "betrayal", pointing out that they offer Israel normal political, economic, and cultural relations while it continues to occupy East Jerusalem and the West Bank and besiege Gaza.

The US-brokered deals were formalised at the White House on September 15.

The US administration is currently trying to broker other deals between Israel and other Arab nations, recently putting heavy pressure on Sudan in this regard.

This story was updated to remove references to the Bahrain deal which still needs a further vote in parliament

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