Adding Abraham Accords Signatories Is Top Priority of Israel’s New Government, Danon Tells Summit
The new Israeli government being formed by Prime Minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu will make adding new signatories to the Abraham Accords its first priority, Danny Danon told world leaders, ambassadors, diplomats, entrepreneurs, lawmakers, academics and clergy from over 30 countries at a meeting in Rome. Danon, Israel’s former ambassador to the United Nations, was speaking on Thursday at the First Annual Abraham Accords Global Leadership Summit, an invitation-only event focused on new ways to increase peace and tolerance in the spirit of the agreements that normalized relations between Israel and several Arab countries. At the same time, Israeli news outlet i24 has reported, citing senior diplomatic officials, that Saudi Arabia is looking to normalize relations with Israel, but cautioned that it will take time.
Danon said on Thursday that he expects to see a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia this year and acknowledged that Israel has been “in contact with the Saudis for years.”
“Prime Minister Netanyahu’s first state visit will be to Abu Dhabi, and we hope that Riyadh will follow. The Abraham Accords were not built in a day. The hardest part was going public. We have been in contact with the Saudis for years – I worked personally with them at the United Nations on matters of regional stability and security. It’s just a matter of time before courageous leaders step out of the shadows and full peace is achieved between all the children of Abraham. I expect we’ll see an agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia this year,” Danon told the summit.
He stressed the importance of the historic summit, saying: “At the Abraham Accords Global Leadership Summit, dozens of nations came together to work towards peace – with practical measures taken to bring additional countries into the fold – while simultaneously creating bonds across six continents. We pray that the seeds we planted here today will grow into unprecedented global peace and coexistence for generations to come.”
The i24 report earlier this week noted that the Saudi crown prince and the Saudi foreign minister each held meetings with American Jews in recent weeks in which they discussed steps that would need to be taken to normalize relations with Israel, and that all of the demands appeared to be directed at the US. The Palestinian issue was not mentioned in these exchanges, according to the report.
