Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Israel to convene leaders from Abraham Accords nations in a historic summit

(JTA) — Israel is convening a summit of the top diplomats of the United States and three of the four Arab countries that normalized relations under the Abraham Accords, a sign that ties are getting closer.

Yair Lapid, Israel’s foreign minister will meet with his counterparts from the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Bahrain during a two-day summit early next week, according to a tweet posted Friday by Israel’s foreign ministry. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is also planning to attend.

The announcement came the same day that Israel announced a memorandum of understanding with Morocco on military cooperation after top Israeli military officers visited their counterparts in Morocco. The announcement, which the Israeli army posted in Arabic on Twitter, said that the sides discussed the possibility of joint military exercises.

The developments signaled the robustness of the Abraham Accords, brokered by the Trump administration in its last months and embraced by the Biden administration, one of the few areas of foreign policy agreement between the two presidencies.

Israel has over the years hosted individual leaders of Arab countries, often quietly, but never held a formal summit. The meeting comes at a time when at least three of the Middle East participants — Israel, the UAE and Bahrain — are profoundly wary of the Biden administration’s efforts to reenter the Iran nuclear deal.

The three countries fear a renewed deal will remove sanctions on Iran and enable its adventurism in the region; the Biden administration sees the deal, which former President Donald Trump abrogated in 2018, as the best means to keep Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

The fourth country that normalized ties with Israel under the Abraham Accords, Sudan, is undergoing political turmoil.


Get the Forward delivered to your inbox. Sign up here to receive our essential morning briefing of American Jewish news and conversation, the afternoon’s top headlines and best reads, and a weekly letter from our editor-in-chief.


The post Israel to convene leaders from Abraham Accords nations, in a historic summit appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.