“We Arabs must wake up because there is a threatening pressure on the Arab identity of the region,” he added. Aboul Gheit’s comments came as he spoke to media about his hope for Palestinian “action” following the agreement between Israel and the UAE to establish normal political and economic relations.

He said the historic peace deal, along with a similar US-brokered normalization accord between Israel and Bahrain, had succeeded in irreversible halting of Israeli plans for annexing parts of the West Bank.

He added that he appreciated Palestinian concerns regarding the agreements and accused US President Donald Trump’s administration of having been unfair to the Palestinians. In the wake of the Oslo Accords (between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization), Arab states had started opening offices in Israel, noted Aboul Gheit, but following the uprising they had withdrawn their representatives.

Since the Arab Spring, a number of Arab countries had collapsed or had been weakened under the bullying influences of other regional parties, he said, and internal conditions had led to the emergence of political Islam on an unprecedented scale, leaving a current situation he described as catastrophic.

The so-called Abraham Accords between Israel, Bahrain, and the UAE were signed under the auspices of Trump at the White House on Sept. 15.