‘To say we’re not getting anything significant from our allies just rewrites history’
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today slammed Senate Democrats’ for dismissing the Trump administration’s Abraham Accords, historic peace agreements to normalize relations between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain.
WATCH: Cruz: You’d Have To Be Living In Parallel Worlds To Deny Trump Peace Deal
During his line of questioning at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Cruz said:
“I just heard the comments from my friend from Connecticut, and it’s almost like we’re living in parallel worlds. To say we’re not getting anything significant from our allies just rewrites history. I had the great joy of being at the White House last week for an historic peace deal, where for the first time in three decades, an Arab country normalized relationships with Israel, the UAE did so. And within a matter of weeks thereafter, Bahrain did so. Both of those were major diplomatic advances. They hadn’t happened for decades. And the Saudis, and the senator from Connecticut just cast aspersions at them, played a major role in brokering Middle East peace, including for the first time allowing Israeli planes to overfly Saudi airspace. I understand that we’re 41 days out from an election, and so everything has to be bad and foreign policy if your opponent is the incumbent. But I do think this committee deserves some acknowledgment and recognition of the historic events that are playing out right now. Events that have made our allies safer, events that have made the Middle East safer and events that have made America safer.”
He added:
“I’ve had conversations directly with the ambassador from the UAE and the ambassador from Saudi Arabia. Both of them told me, said the reason we are cutting this deal is because we want to be friends with America. We want to be closer friends with you, and we know you care that we make nice with Israel, so we’re willing to do that because we want a closer friendship and alliance with the United States. I think that is an incredible victory for clarity in foreign policy. And is something worth learning from, celebrating, and emulating going forward.”
Watch Sen. Cruz’s full line of questioning here. Read Sen. Cruz’s statement on the Abraham Accords here.
In the past eight years, Sen. Cruz has resolved to be Israel’s strongest defender in the Senate. In 2017, Sens. Cruz and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) introduced the Safeguard Israel Act to cut off funding to the United Nations until Resolution 2334 is repealed. In 2018, Sen. Cruz attended the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem. In 2019, Sen. Cruz introduced a resolution with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wisc.) recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, and commended the administration’s decision to recognize the reality of Israeli control over communities in territories Israel has controlled since June 1967. At the same time, Sen. Cruz has led the fight in the Senate to shred the Obama-Iran nuclear deal and has called for the collapse of the Iranian regime.