The Trump administration was close to finalizing deals with Indonesia and Mauritania to be the next Muslim states to normalize ties with Israel but ran out of time before Trump’s term was over, two US officials told The Times of Israel this week.
An agreement with Mauritania could have been reached in a matter of weeks, US officials believe. The Northwest African country was selected as a possible candidate for normalizing ties with Israel by Trump’s peace team due to its ties with Israel in the past. In 1999, it became the third member of the Arab League to establish full diplomatic ties with Israel, later cutting ties during Operation Cast Lead in 2008-2009.
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, was the next most likely candidate to normalize ties with Israel but reaching a deal would have required another month or two.
A senior US official also said that the Trump team was also in “intermediate” talks with Oman and more preliminary talks with Saudi Arabia but admitted that those deals required considerably more time.
“I hope the Biden administration takes advantage of this because these are good for everyone,” the official said. “Peace is not a Republican ideal or a Democratic ideal.”
“If the US wants to continue to motivate the Abraham Accords, three to four more countries should be the low bar for its success. Being unable to deliver that would be a significant disappointment.”
“There’s no doubt that when the US wants to lead toward peace and normalization, more countries will follow,” he concluded.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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5 Responses
No doubt, after the next country normalises ties with Israel the media will fawn over it as the Dem’s sole doing, and Biden will be awarded a Nobel Peace prise.
If these “agreements” are truly substantive, long-term changes in the historic positions of these Arab countries towards EY, and not short-term cosmetic changes based on some off-the-record “commitments” by the U.S. which may not be enduring, than EY should be able to complete these deals w/o U.S. involvement. My fear has always been that the prior administration had been “bribing” some of these countries to sign agreements in exchange for U.S. arms shipments etc. I hope there really is a long-term change and they have seen the wisdom of peace with EY and the benefits that will flow to their people
True or not, the most significant real news story is not even mentioned on YWN, but you can post ridiculously insane stories from anonymous random people.
Gadolhadorah, there won’t be new agreements under Biden. Many mid-east nations are against the Iran Agreement, which Biden is pushing towards again. What we do know is that Biden desires to cease any expansion that Israel has taken into it’s territories, and will fight nail and tooth for a 2-state solution.
rt, what’s the most significant news story of the day? That Biden signed an EO on the Mexico City Policy, now the US is funding abortions in other countries. So that’s what you are excited about?
dorah:
The land (“E”Y) is not relevant here. There “agreements” are between gentile nations and the wannabe-gentile Zionist nation known as the State of Israel.