Blinken meets with foreign ministers of four Arab countries in Israel
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel in a visit for four days of meetings, including a historic summit with Israel and the foreign ministers of four Arab countries.
The foreign ministers of Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Bahrain and their counterpart Blinken will have a historic diplomatic meeting that begins today, Sunday, in Israel.
Topping the agenda are the Iran nuclear talks, which concerns Israel, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that could cause a crisis in the Middle East, media reports said.
Blinken will focus on mobilizing support for Ukraine during his diplomatic tour.
Blinken is set to visit the West Bank, Morocco and Algeria. He will meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, media report added.
Israeli officials visited the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco since normalization began in September 2020.
But of the three countries’ ministers, only Bahrain’s foreign minister visited Israel in November 2020.
On March 23, a summit was held in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt included Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohammed bin Zayed, UAE’s de facto ruler, it was the first time the three countries’ leaders to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, with talks focused on a joint defense strategy against Iran, according to Israel media outlets.
The UAE, Bahrain and Morocco, three Arab nations are part of the so-called Abraham Accords brokered by the Trump administration in 2020 to normalize ties with Israel.
While Egypt, which on Saturday marked 43 years of peace with Israel, was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, after decades of conflict.