Palestinian Foreign Minister Slams Abraham Accords As Failure Over Lack Of New Signatories

Only three countries the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco have so far signed the US-brokered normalization Abraham Accords with the Israeli government in full, which can be regarded as a sign of failure to normalize relations between the Arab world and Israel, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Maliki told Sputnik

RAMALLAH (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 06th February, 2023) Only three countries the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco have so far signed the US-brokered normalization Abraham Accords with the Israeli government in full, which can be regarded as a sign of failure to normalize relations between the Arab world and Israel, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Maliki told Sputnik.

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan discussed efforts to expand the Abraham Accords with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his visit to Jerusalem in January. The main emphasis was put on "a breakthrough regarding Saudi Arabia," Netanyahu's office said, adding that the agreement also contributed to cooperation between Israel, Bahrain, and the UAE in their areas of shared interests, including defense, energy, food, water security and health.

"So far, until now, only three countries have really signed this normalization Abraham Accords. Only three countries. Nothing has happened since the last time, when Morocco signed it. So is this a sign of success or a sign of failure? From my perspective, it's a sign of failure that no other Arab countries have joined in and normalized relations with Israel," al-Maliki said.

The United States has repeatedly expressed its desire to expand the Accords and bring in Muslim countries to normalize relations with Israel, but despite all the efforts made, Washington in the end failed to convince other states to join the agreement, the Palestinian top diplomat told Sputnik.

"From our perspective, it means that we have succeeded in limiting the number of countries that have signed with Israel to only three countries.

And even these three countries, if you look at what they are doing right now, the whole concept of normalization is fading away. Maybe it was something interesting at the beginning, everybody wanted to look at it, et cetera. But right now it is really fading away," al-Maliki said, adding that the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco had in no way moved forward in their relations with Israel since the conclusion of the deal.

In 2020, the United States launched a process to normalize relations between Israel and the Arab world. As a result of these efforts, in September 2020, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed a set of documents dubbed the Abraham Peace Accords, which were joined by Morocco in December that year. In January 2021, Sudan also signed the declarative section of the Accords, but did not sign the relevant document with Israel, unlike other states, due to disagreements between the Sudanese military and civilian leadership over the issue.

The Abraham Peace Accords entailed the resumption of embassy operations, the establishment of direct flights and the lifting of the ban on tourist trips and official visits between Israel and the three Arab countries. The Palestinian authorities have repeatedly criticized the states seeking to normalize relations with Israel and said that such steps undermine international law and the rights of the Palestinian people.