United States, Israel and four Arab countries’ diplomats will meet in Bahrain on Monday. This meeting comes three months after the countries vowed to boost cooperation at a landmark meeting in Israel.
Foreign ministry officials from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Egypt will meet in Manama in Bahrain. UAE, Bahrain and Morocco normalised ties with Israel in 2020 while Egypt had made peace with the Jewish state in 1979.
The met in March for the first time. The meeting was held on Israeli soil at the Sde Boker kibbutz in the Negev desert where US Secy of State Antony Blinken joined his counterparts from the Middle East.
Brokered by former US President Donald Trump, the Abraham Accords saw United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco forging ties with Israel. This move led to resentment from the Palestinians who felt that the Accords marked a betrayal of decades old Arab consensus to isolate Israel until it agreed to the establishment of a Palestinian state which was to have its capital in east Jerusalem, according to News 18.
Washington has insisted that it wants the meetings to be held annually. It also wants Palestinian Authority and Jordan to be added to the grouping. Blinken is positive about the meeting, but in Negev he had warned that nothing can replace Israel and Palestinian peace building.
Water, tourism, health, energy, food security and regional security are some of the issues that are set to be discussed at the meeting.
According to News 18, Israel has also found common cause with Gulf Arab states in their tense relationship with Iran’s Shiite clerical state. Monday’s “meeting will also serve as a milestone ahead of the US president’s expected visit to the Middle East”, the Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement.
From July 13 to July 16, US President Joe Biden is expected to visit Israel, the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Saudi Arabia in what will be his first trip to the Middle East since taking charge of the Oval office.
