US, Israel and Arab allies to meet in early 2023

The US is planning to convene a meeting for Israel and the Arab countries which have normalised relations with the occupation state in early 2023, news agencies reported on Wednesday.

In addition to the Arab countries which have normalised their relations with Israel more recently, the meeting will also be attended by Egypt and Jordan. Some discussions will include the Palestinian Authority as well.

An American official said on Tuesday that the US is planning the meeting as America “pushes the incoming right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu to show restraint.”

AFP reported a senior US official as saying that Washington is planning a meeting “probably in the first quarter” of 2023 for foreign ministers following on from the so-called Negev Summit last March. The Egyptian foreign minister and his counterparts from the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco, which normalised relations in 2020 in the Abraham Accords, attended that meeting with Israeli ministers.

Egyptian sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the 2023 meeting will focus on “bolstering regional cooperation and proposing a number of economic projects that had been put on hold for a while.” The projects will help boost cooperation between regional countries, the sources explained, pointing out that the US is keen to activate cooperation between countries that have established relations with Israel.

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