US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is in Israel today for a “historic” meeting in the Negev desert with foreign ministers from Arab countries who have normalized relations with the Jewish state as part of a tour of the Middle East and the North. Africa.
Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, ahead of a meeting with his counterparts from Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Bahrain and Egypt. The meeting has been described as “historic” by Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid.
The United Arab Emirates normalized its relations with Israel in 2020 under a series of US-mediated agreements known as the “Abraham Accords”. Bahrain and Morocco followed suit.
These agreements were reached after decades in which the Arab states made the normalization of relations with Israel conditional on the resolution of the Palestinian issue.
After arriving from Poland, where he accompanied US President Joe Biden, Blinken will remain in Israel until Monday, when he will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. He will also travel to Ramallah for talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Palestinians fear they could be sidelined by a US-backed effort to normalize relations between Israel and Arab countries. US support for the move has waned under Donald Trump.
The US Secretary of State wants to show that the US has not lost interest in the Middle East, even though Washington seems to be turning its attention to China and more recently to Ukraine.
Anthony Blinken will leave Israel on Monday for Algeria and then visit Morocco, where he will meet with the de facto leader of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed.
Hopes that it will provide support to US and NATO efforts to counter the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in a context characterized by the severe economic consequences of the war, in particular the rise in energy prices and the threat of grain shortages that could cause a very serious blow to the Arab countries.
Iran’s nuclear program
Another issue that Blinen is expected to address is the negotiations in Vienna on Iran’s nuclear program. The United States and Iran are currently in the final stages of indirect talks aimed at reviving the 2015 agreement, which will prevent Tehran from acquiring an atomic bomb in exchange for lifting sanctions that have “suffocated” the Iranian economy. .
The deal collapsed in 2018 following the unilateral withdrawal of Washington by order of Donald Trump and the resumption of sanctions against Iran, which in turn was gradually “released” from the restrictions imposed on its nuclear program.
Reaching an agreement is a “matter of days”, said on Saturday, the head of European diplomacy Josep Borel. EU co-ordinator overseeing talks with Iran Enrique Mora is expected to arrive in Tehran overnight.
State Department spokesman Ned Price recently said the deal was “neither imminent nor certain.”
The prospect of reaching an agreement has alarmed both Israel and its US allies in the Gulf region, who see Tehran as a “threat.”
In February, Naftali Bennett expressed fears that the deal would not prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. For its part, Tehran denies seeking an atomic bomb.
Source: Capital
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