US Secretary of State Antony Blinken crossed into Israel from Poland. During the visit of Blinken, who will attend the Israeli-Arab summit, Iran’s nuclear negotiations and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will also be on the agenda.
The US State Department announced that Blinken will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett tomorrow. Bennett is trying to mediate to end the month-long Ukraine-Russia war.
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs also announced that Minister Yair Lapid will meet Blinken on Sunday and Monday with the foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Egypt for a “historic meeting”.
The summit will be held at a luxury hotel in the south of Israel on the Sde Boker kibbutz, where the tomb of the country’s founder and first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, is located.
Blinken will also visit the West Bank, Morocco and Algeria during the regional tour where Iran and regional security issues will also be discussed.
The US State Department said in a statement that it will meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.
Last week, leaders of Egypt, Israel and the United Arab Emirates met in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh to discuss the economic impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Iran’s influence. Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty in 1979.
The UAE and Bahrain had normalized relations with Israel in 2020 under the US-mediated agreement, known as the Abraham Accord. This normalization created a new regional dynamic based on mutual concern regarding Iran. Morocco followed the same path last year and signed a memorandum of understanding with Israel yesterday on military cooperation.