Israel to host US, UEA, Bharain and Morocco diplomats for three-day ‘historic' summit
Categories: FOREIGN COUNTRIES
The summit is historic considering the fact that Israel and these Arab countries used to be at loggerheads with each other for decades, and how it is has been normalised post the signing of the Abraham Accords in 2020, which was brokered by the US.“At the invitation of Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, this upcoming Sunday and Monday... a historic diplomatic summit will be held in Israel," it said in a statement on Friday. A series of diplomatic meetings would be attended by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his counterparts from the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco, it said.The United Arab Emirates forged diplomatic ties with Israel in 2020 under a series of US-brokered deals known as the Abraham Accords. Bahrain and Morocco followed suit, while Sudan also agreed to normalise ties with Israel although it has yet to finalise a deal. The agreements — reached under former US president Donald Trump — broke with decades of Arab consensus that there would be no relations with Israel while the Palestinian question remains unresolved.But the Arab countries said they were motivated by the economic benefits of ties with Israel, reports AFP.The upcoming talks come against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a conflict that has sparked wider security concerns and sent oil and food prices soaring.