Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed on Wednesday that he is in the midst of intense peace talks with other Arab leaders with whom he has forged a special relationship of trust and closeness over the years.
“Not only do the agreements we bring about change the relations between Israelis and Arabs outside Israel for the better, they also change the relations between Jews and Arabs within Israel for the better. We are in talks with other countries about more peace agreements,” he declared Wednesday night during a campaign event.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo predicted earlier this week that “many more” countries are expected to join the Abraham Accords and normalize their relations with Israel, including Muslim nations that are not in the Middle East.
In his remarks, Pompeo said that the Abraham Accords between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, and Morocco represented a paradigm shift in Middle East policy.
Asked whether additional countries will join the process, he said “I don’t think there will be just one, I think there will be many more. I hope that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia can find its way to join the Abraham Accords, I know that many inside that country want that to take place. But there are other nations too that can join… Muslim nations, not just in the Middle East but places like Indonesia as well.”
The UAE and Bahrain signed a historic peace agreement with Israel at the White House on September 15, the first agreement to be signed between Israel and an Arab country in 25 years.
The UAE was the first major Arab state to recognize Israel since the Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty was signed in October 1994.
Announced on August 13, the Abraham Accords is the first between a Gulf state and Israel and is expected to lead to similar agreements with other Arab countries, possibly Oman or Saudi Arabia.
Israel and Sudan announced the normalization of ties in October 2020. Morocco joined the Abraham Accords in December.
