Many are concerned about the implications of the historic agreement regarding Iran and the application of sovereignty, but the declaration has additional significance • The UAE, like Greece, is trying to stop the Turkish president's rampage in the Mediterranean, which this week reached a new high • Interpretation

Not surprisingly, the references (in Israel and around the world) to the dramatic announcement by President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the heir (in fact, ruler) of the United Arab Emirates Muhammad bin Zayed have focused on aspects related to the Palestinian question and the rejection of sovereignty; In standing together in the face of the Iranian threat; And even in the political implications in Israel and the United States. All of these are indeed significant and important components in the covert moves that led to the breakthrough. 

PM Netanyahu: "This is a historic evening, we have opened a new era with the Arab world" // Photo: GPO

At the same time, an important question was pushed aside, shedding further and significant light on the timing of the announcement - and on the depth of the strategic partnership between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, in the midst of a first-class crisis currently unfolding in the eastern Mediterranean. 

The Israeli public has not given much thought in recent months to what is happening in the Libyan civil war, which has become a battlefield through a courier between Turkey, aided by Qatar, and Egypt - consistently and widely supported by the UAE (remember, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have a deep rift And prolonged, due in part to Qatar's sympathetic stance toward the Muslim Brotherhood movement). 

But last week, the struggle there became relevant for Israel and its future. The foreign ministers of Egypt and Greece - Sameh Shukri and Nikos Dandias - have signed an agreement in Cairo marking the border route between the two countries' economic water zones (EEZ). 

This agreement puts both in a frontal confrontation with the map marked by Turkish President Erdogan and the government of Fayez Sarag, who controls the capital Tripoli and northwestern Libya: According to this map, Turkey has an EEZ (exclusive economic zone) border with Libya, so can not be Greece borders Egypt.

At the level of principle, the debate concerns the status of islands, such as Crete. In practice, Turkey's goal is to block the path of Cyprus, Egypt, and Israel to European markets. 

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In a furious response to the Egyptian-Greek agreement, Erdogan sent a seismic research vessel - armed with the Turkish navy - to operate in Greece's economic waters (as they are marked by international law), but Turkey claims they are its own. The danger of a military flare-up is thus hovering over the eastern Mediterranean. 

All of this has a direct bearing on the breakthrough. The UAE sees Erdogan's regime as a dangerous factor, working to advance the Muslim Brotherhood's takeover of countries in the region, including Egypt. Therefore, it actually supported (and so did Saudi Arabia) moves to oust Muhammad Morsi from power in Egypt in the summer of 2013. 

Turkey, for its part, has condemned the "coup regime" and the "sham of power" by 'Abd al-Fatah al-Sisi. For the same reason it also rallied to help Egypt support the forces of the "Field Marshal" Khalifa Hefter in western Libya and his attempt to occupy Tripoli - an attempt that was halted when Turkey intervened militarily in favor of the Sarag government.

Now, with the signing of the Egyptian-Greek agreement, the Emirates' foreign minister, Anwar Gergash, has unequivocally sided with the Egyptian position, even defining the signing as a "victory" with historical significance.

Trump: "A peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates will be signed in the White House" // Photo: Reuters

This week, albeit in less dramatic language, the Israeli government also stood to the right of the agreement. Anyone who wants to understand why the "burst of peace" between Israel and the Emirates right now deserves to examine this aspect as well, along with the question of the application of sovereignty and the growing level of threat from Iran. 

The author serves as Vice President of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS), served as Vice President of the National Security Council and is a senior member of the Israel Defense Forces