The United States plans a new Arab-Israeli meeting in 2023
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The United States plans to hold a meeting with Israel and the Arab countries that recognize it, as Washington pushes the incoming government of Benjamin Netanyahu to show restraint.
Netanyahu is set to take power with the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, including figures from the extreme fringes who strongly support settlement expansion in Palestinian areas.
A senior US official said the US plans to hold a meeting “probably in the first quarter” of 2023 of foreign ministers for the so-called Negev summit in March.
The meeting, with the then Israeli centrist government, brought into the Israeli desert the foreign minister of Egypt, the first Arab country to make peace with Israel, and his counterparts from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, which normalized relations in 2020 in the Middle East. The so-called Abraham Accords.
The US official said on condition that the accords, hailed by then-US President Donald Trump as a distinguished achievement, are “near and dear to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s heart and so I imagine he wants to continue to see that move forward.” of anonymity.
“I think Israel should take that into consideration,” the official said.
“Depending on some of the things that Israel does, that could make it harder or easier for these countries to get involved and actually participate and move forward, let alone get new countries into the process.”
The UAE launched the Abraham Accords in return for a promise from the then Netanyahu government not to move forward with annexing the West Bank, a move that had the Trump administration’s blessing.
President Joe Biden’s administration has warned that it opposes annexation and settlement expansion and supported the creation of a Palestinian state while reaching no major diplomatic thrust toward a goal seen as having little chance of success.