The Ministry’s director-general is scheduled to attend a working meeting next week with Arab counterparts in Abu Dhabi to prepare the meeting…reports Asian Lite News
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen announced his plan to attend a conference in March with his counterparts from Arab countries that have normalised relations with the Jewish state.
Cohen, who took office last week in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition government, said the conference will be hosted by Morocco, Xinhua news agency reported citing a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry here.
The Ministry’s director-general is scheduled to attend a working meeting next week with Arab counterparts in Abu Dhabi to prepare the meeting, he added.
Cohen was referring to the Negev Forum, a foreign ministerial-level framework established by Israel, Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, the UAE and the US in 2022 to develop Israeli-Arab relations, especially after the normalization Abraham Accords Israel reached with Bahrain, Morocco and the UAE in 2020.
“Expanding the Accords to other countries is not a matter of ‘if’ but of ‘when’,” Cohen said.
The Minister added that Israel’s ties with the Arab countries resulted in $2.85 billion in trade in 2022 and “a significant contribution to security … and regional stability”.
Netanyahu, who was sworn in for a sixth term last week, has expressed hope of forming official ties with Saudi Arabia.
In the past, Riyadh has conditioned any diplomatic progress with Israel on progress toward a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi have discussed boosting bilateral ties and promoting regional security by phone.
According to a statement issued by the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office on Sunday, the leaders expressed their desire to promote bilateral relations “in all areas, including in light of developments in the regional and international arenas”.
They emphasised “the importance of promoting peace, stability, and security for the benefit of both people and all Middle East countries,” the statement said.
Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty in 1979, which was the first peace treaty Israel signed with an Arab nation, but ties between the two countries have remained relatively cool and distant.
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