Day 699 - In Abu Dhabi, UAE tells ToI annexation is a 'red line'
The Times of Israel Daily Briefing
The Times of Israel
4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 4 September 2025
⏱️ 30 minutes
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Summary
Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.
US bureau chief Jacob Magid joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's episode.
In an interview conducted in the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, Emirati special envoy Lana Nusseibeh warned Israel that annexing the West Bank would cross a “red line” that would “end the vision of regional integration.” Today, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is meant to hold a major ministerial consultation on whether to advance. Magid sets the scene and explains what Nusseibeh and the Emiratis are trying to get across to the Israeli public.
Earlier in the week, on Monday, in Doha, Magid spoke with Majed al-Ansari, the spokesperson for Qatar’s lead negotiator, Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, and heard the backstory of their frustrations over the negotiation process. We reset the scene and delve into the role of Qatar as negotiator for the Gaza war -- and other global conflicts.
The United States said on Friday it will not allow Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to travel to New York next month for a United Nations gathering of world leaders, where several US allies are set to recognize Palestine as a state. A State Department official told Magid that a US visa ban on Palestinian officials planning to attend the United Nations General Assembly, would cover Abbas along with 80 other PA officials. Magid explains the mechanism of withholding the visas and how it dates to a report written during the Biden administration.
Last week, Magid spoke with Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon about the impending slew of recognitions of a Palestinian state. Borschel-Dan notes that his remarks could be construed as dismissive: “These countries want to show that they are doing something, so they blow off steam by coming up with these declarative statements.” We hear Magid's takeaways from the conversation.
Check out The Times of Israel's ongoing liveblog for more updates.
For further reading:
UAE warns Israel: Annexing West Bank is a ‘red line’ that would ‘end regional integration’
After US cools on phased Gaza deal, senior Qatari official laments ‘moving goalposts’
US says it will ban PA’s Abbas, 80 other officials from attending UN General Assembly
Israel’s UN envoy: Western leaders recognizing Palestinian state to ‘blow off steam’
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IMAGE: US President Donald Trump, center, with from left, Bahrain Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, during the Abraham Accords signing ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House on September 15, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Times of Israel's Daily briefing. Today is Thursday, September 4th, day 699 of the war. |
| 0:11.5 | Amanda Borchelle Dan here in our Jerusalem office with our U.S. Bureau Chief Jacob Magid. So great to see you. |
| 0:18.5 | Hi Amanda. Good to be with you again. It is such a pleasure. |
| 0:21.6 | In person. |
| 0:22.6 | Amazing. |
| 0:23.6 | Okay, so I will clamp down on my enthusiasm because we have many serious things to talk about. |
| 0:28.6 | And we're going to speak about Jacobs' exclusive interview with Emirati-envoy Lana Nuseba |
| 0:35.6 | and her appeal against annexation of the West Bank. |
| 0:39.1 | We will learn about Jacobs' interview this week with the spokesperson for Qatar's lead |
| 0:44.7 | ceasefire hostage-release negotiator, and here the Qatari frustration. |
| 0:50.5 | We're going to speak about the looming United Nations General Assembly, where a slew of countries are intending to recognize a Palestinian state, |
| 0:58.0 | and what Israel's ambassador to the UN had to say about this, and we'll hear about the background to the U.S.'s decision not to grant Palestinian officials visas to the U.S. for the General Assembly. |
| 1:11.2 | So all of this and more when we're back. |
| 1:18.5 | It was violent. It was awful, of course, but I think that what brought the similarities to my |
| 1:24.7 | imagination was what happened after, the language that happened after, the reactions |
| 1:29.9 | that were so unfair. But the event itself, you know, Holocaust was very different. It was very |
| 1:36.3 | silent. The people who died there died alone. Hi, I'm Manya Marcus, host of what came after. This past |
| 1:43.6 | February, I traveled to Poland to meet with several staff members at the Warsaw Office of Elnet, |
| 1:48.8 | an organization that strengthens diplomatic ties between Europe and Israel. |
| 1:53.3 | Together, we recorded a roundtable discussion about the impact of October 7th in Eastern Europe. |
| 1:58.7 | He said that he's not surprised that this happened, and let's wait and see what's going |
| 2:03.7 | to happen in Poland because he said anti-Semitism was never dead. |
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