Blinken includes Morocco in agenda to boost normalisation between Israel and Saudi Arabia
To advance normalisation, Antony Blinken is extending his trip to Israel to include stops in Saudi Arabia and Morocco. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has added Morocco and Saudi Arabia to his itinerary, in addition to Israel of course, according to Israeli media i24News.
Blinken will travel to Morocco and Saudi Arabia after his planned stops in Israel and for talks with the Palestinian National Authority in the third week of October, according to "diplomatic sources". According to i24News, the trip will be "part of Washington's effort to advance normalisation between Jerusalem and Riyadh".
The tour is expected to strengthen the framework of the Abraham Accords, which have helped diplomatic interactions to normalise ties between Israel and several Arab nations, including Morocco. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already emphasised that Israel was close to signing a historic normalisation agreement with Saudi Arabia in his speech to the UN General Assembly last week.
A new Middle East will truly be created if Israel and Saudi Arabia can reach peace, he remarked. Netanyahu showed maps showing Israel's development from isolation in 1948 to rapprochement with several nations in 2020 and Morocco, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates are among these nations.
Netanyahu, however, did not outline a clear path towards this possible agreement or offer information on possible obstacles that could obstruct the progress of such a controversial deal. He insisted that Saudi Arabia's accession to the Abraham Accords would constitute a "quantum leap for peace in the East that is generating tremendous blessings for the rest of the world".
Also, all this based on recent statements made by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who, without going into detail on Saudi demands or objectives for the Palestinian cause, suggested that normalisation with Israel is "no longer just a pipe dream". "We need to resolve the conflict to bring about a common future. We hope that everything will come to fruition and that the agreements will provide Israelis and Palestinians with a privileged position as key players in the 'New Middle East'," Mohamed bin Salman confirmed to Fox News.
Israeli government representatives have been visiting Saudi Arabia more frequently in recent months. The first of these was Israeli Tourism Minister Haim Katz, who made his first public trip there in September, followed by Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, who made his first official visit to the Arab country on 2 October as the leader of a delegation to Riyadh for an international conference.
As such, they anticipate that the US Secretary of State's upcoming trip will further strengthen ties between the US, Morocco and the Middle East in general. The Biden Administration is trying to restart the normalisation process and Blinken's tour is part of that effort, according to i24News.
In addition, it should be noted that in late September, John Kirby, spokesman for the US National Security Council, said that the normalisation talks had "defined a basic structure" for moving forward. Trips by Israeli officials to Saudi Arabia have increased significantly in recent months, paving the way for possible progress in diplomatic relations. Blinken's upcoming trip is expected to be crucial in mediating and promoting additional steps towards normalisation between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
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