[ad_1]
Jerusalem – On Monday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo kicked off his five-day Middle East tour with a visit to Israel, as the main focus appeared to be building on the normalization agreement reached earlier this month between the United Arab Emirates and Israel, to persuade Arab countries to follow the same lines. .
The US Secretary of State, during a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, expressed his “hope” that other Arab countries would follow the UAE’s example in normalizing relations with Israel. “I hope to see other Arab countries join” the Emirati movement, Pompeo said as part of his tour of Khartoum, Manama and Abu Dhabi.
The US Secretary of State spoke of the opportunity that awaits future partners “to work side by side and recognize the State of Israel”.
On August 13, Israel and the United Arab Emirates announced an agreement to normalize their relations, with American mediation. Several Western countries, such as Britain, France and Germany, hailed the deal, saying the step would boost stability in the region.
During the press conference with Pompeo, the Israeli Prime Minister declared that the peace treaty concluded by his country with the United Arab Emirates is “historic”, stressing that it “contributes to the stability of the region”. He added: “This is a historic question, this great achievement that we have made with the UAE, working on the peace treaty and starting relations between the two countries.”
“With the help of (US President) Donald Trump and (US Secretary of State) Mike Pompeo, we were able to make this decision, contribute to the stability of the region, and it will open a new era for us … We also talked about joining other countries, maybe in the near future, ”Netanyahu said. .
UAE-Israeli deal would remove embarrassment for several Arab countries to move forward on normalization of relations with Israel
The Israeli-Emirati agreement constitutes an important diplomatic victory for the American administration, which faces a fateful electoral law a few months later as President Donald Trump aspires to a second presidential term.
Analysts said the deal would ease the embarrassment of several Arab countries to move forward on the path of public normalization of relations with Israel.
Experts believe that Sudan will be the next country to conclude a peace agreement with Israel, especially since the ground seems ready for such a move, and Pompeo’s choice of Sudan as the second stop on his Middle East tour. reinforces this reading.
And the Sudanese News Agency (SUNA) announced the arrival of the US Secretary of State in Khartoum on Tuesday during an official visit during which he will meet with the Chairman of the Sovereignty Council, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok.
The agency reported that the talks focused on US support for the democratic transition in Sudan and the issue of relations with Israel. The talks are expected to discuss speeding up the removal of Sudan’s name from the list of states sponsoring terrorism, which the head of the Sovereignty Council previously revealed has a connection between them and the normalization stage.
The US State Department had said earlier that Pompeo would meet during his tour with Sudanese Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok “to express his support for the deepening of Sudanese-Israeli relations”.
Since the reign of ousted President Omar al-Bashir, Khartoum has started to forge relations with Tel Aviv, and several meetings have been held between Israeli and Sudanese officials in several capitals, including the Turkish city of Istanbul, before the popular uprising broke out in 2018 and carried the Bashir regime with it.
The process of building Israeli-Sudanese relations with the current transitional authority resumed under the direct auspices of US Secretary of State Pompeo, culminating in a meeting last February with the head of the Sudanese Sovereignty Council, Abdel Fattah Al -Burhan, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Entebbe, Ugandan.
Things did not go to their intended end as the Sudanese government, led by Hamdok, has been ignored and is not participating in this path, which Pompeo will take into account this time.
Besides Sudan and Israel, the visit of the US Secretary of State includes Bahrain, where he will meet with Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, in the hope that the Gulf country will follow the example of the United Arab Emirates in public normalization. relations with Israel, especially since this stage was opened by public visits. For the Israeli delegations in Manama.
Bahrain was the first Gulf country to hail the standardization agreement between the UAE and Israel. Contacts between the small Gulf state and the Hebrew state date back to the 1990s, before accelerating in recent years.
Bahrain and Israel share the same hostility towards Iran, which Manama accuses of supporting the Shiite opposition and of seeking to provoke security disturbances on its soil.
Pompeo will end his tour with a visit to the United Arab Emirates, where he will meet with his Emirati counterpart, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, to review the latest efforts before signing an agreement to normalize Israeli-Emirati relations.
Source link
