Israeli, US officials land in UAE, Kushner urges Palestinians to negotiate

Senior US and Israeli officials landed in the United Arab Emirates on Monday on a historic trip to finalise a pact marking open relations between Israel and the Gulf state, and they told Palestinians it was now time for them to negotiate peace.

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner (above) also said on arrival in Abu Dhabi that Washington could help maintain Israel's military edge while advancing its ties to the UAE, the Arab world's second-largest economy and regional power.

Announced on Aug 13, the normalisation deal is the first such accommodation between an Arab country and Israel in more than 20 years and was forged largely through shared fears of Iran...