By: Isabella Arbizo
Staff Writer
There have been a lot of “firsts” and “unthinkable” moments since Israel signed the normalization agreements with several Arab nations less than two years ago that was dubbed the “Abraham Accords.” But few likely come to the level of four foreign ministers from Arab nations, along with the US Secretary of State, meeting together in Israel and posing for photos with their arms intertwined. Attended by Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Morocco’s Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita, and UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the historic summit, held in the southern Israeli desert city of Sde Boker in the Negev desert, was the first time that the UAE and Moroccan diplomats publicly visited Israel. The Palestinians weren’t present at the talks, but a series of attacks in Israel this month served as a reminder that the Israel-Palestinian conflict is always nearby. Five people were killed in a shooting near Tel Aviv on Tuesday, according to Israeli police, marking the third such attack in Israel within a week. And, in a sign of the ever-present divides in the region, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack, while Palestinian militant groups praised it. The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades — the armed wing of the Palestinian Fatah movement — took responsibility for the attack and said it was “a clear message written in blood in response to the Negev summit.” Aside from turning the Abraham Accords from “ceremony to substance,” as Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has said, the meeting also illustrated the changing power structure of the region as the US pivots away from the Middle East. Much of what bonds these countries together is a common stance on Iran, especially as negotiations to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal reach an advanced stage. The meeting was an opportunity for the foreign ministers to express their disappointment in what they see as a weak deal, one that will only further bolster what they see as Tehran’s destabilizing activities in the region, like supporting militant organizations from Lebanon to Yemen. “These shared interests revolve around countering Iran and dealing with the vacuum the US is leaving behind,” said Ezzedine Fishere, professor at Dartmouth College and former Egyptian diplomat in Tel Aviv. “The two issues are intertwined.” Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said Monday that the “new regional architecture” with Arab countries “intimidates and deters … Iran and its proxies,” but the UAE has been keen to present its regional alignments in a wider context, as part of a changing world order that is no longer unipolar. Top UAE official Anwar Gargash told CNN’s Becky Anderson on Tuesday that the “Middle East is not really only about Iran … and Israel.” “Our whole intention is to find a way of functionally working with Iran … that there is an agenda of stability or prosperity in the region that includes Iran and others,” said Gargash, who is a diplomatic adviser to the UAE president. Fishere said Gulf states started feeling America’s “reticence” to support them as far back as 2006 “when the Bush administration suddenly lost appetite to push back Iranian influence in Iraq.” “And as [President] Obama decided to take a few steps back, Gulf states found someone else eager to step in and help: Israel,” he added. For months, Bennett has said he hopes to one day form a regional security alliance — like NATO — to counter Iran, no matter what happens with the nuclear deal. While a regional NATO-like grouping may be far off, there has been progressing on security cooperation between the countries and the foreign ministers did agree to meet on a regular basis, rotating the host country each time.