JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The new head of Israeli diplomacy, Elie Cohen, has announced his participation in Morocco in March at a summit of signatories to the Abraham Accords.
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The “Abraham Accords”, signed in 2020 under the aegis of the United States, aim to normalize relations between Israel, on the one hand, and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco, on the other hand. somewhere else.
A press release from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs specifies that the summit is planned in Morocco, but does not mention the other signatory countries.
Directors general of relevant foreign ministries are due to meet in Abu Dhabi next week.
“The question is not whether these agreements will expand to other countries, but when,” said Elie Cohen, who took office last week in Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
The Abraham Accords, he said, raised $2.85 billion (€2.67 billion) in trade in 2022 and made “a significant contribution to security (and ) to regional stability”.
The Israeli prime minister expressed hope for establishing relations with Saudi Arabia, which shares Israel’s concerns over Iran’s nuclear program. But Riyadh has shown itself reluctant to normalize in the absence of progress on the Palestinian file.
Last March, Israel hosted the foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Egypt, as well as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, for the first “Negev Summit”.
(Written by Dan Williams; French version Jean Rosset; Editing by Sophie Louet)
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