Five-Way Meeting to Be Held in Jerusalem to Tackle Issues Discussed in Sharm El-Sheikh

World

March 26th, 9:30am

Tel Aviv - Asharq Al-Awsat

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, AFP

Five days after the tripartite summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, which brought together Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid announced holding a two-day "historic diplomatic summit." The five-way regional summit will take place on Sunday and Monday in Jerusalem. Lapid will host his counterparts from the US, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco. At the summit, the ministers will discuss regional and global affairs. Lapid made it clear that the summit is being held on the occasion of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to the Middle East, where he will meet Bennett and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. Blinken is also scheduled to visit other countries in the region. The US State Department said that Blinken will discuss “the Russian government's war on Ukraine, Iran's destabilizing activities, the Abraham Accords, Israeli-Palestinian relations and maintaining the prospect of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” Sources in Tel Aviv confirmed that the five-way meeting will be a practical continuation of the tripartite meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh. They revealed that the three leaders in Sharm el-Sheikh discussed a number of issues, foremost of which is Iran and reports about US intentions to remove the Revolutionary Guards from its list of designated “terrorist organizations.” The leaders also tackled the possibility of the world reaching a new nuclear agreement with Iran at the talks in Vienna. The war in Ukraine and wheat supplies to Egypt were also discussed. A senior Israeli military delegation led by Tal Kelman, the military official in charge of Iran affairs, wrapped up a series of meetings in Morocco this week, the Israeli military said Friday. The visit was broken to the public by Avichay Adraee, the military’s Arab spokesperson, via his Twitter account. During the visit to Morocco's capital Rabat, Kelman met with the chief of Morocco's military Belkhir El Farouk, and other senior Moroccan officers, according to Adraee's tweet. The two delegations reviewed "regional and international challenges ... and opportunities for military cooperation in the areas of training and rehabilitation, in addition to operation and intelligence fields," wrote Adraee.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3554756/five-way-meeting-be-held-jerusalem-tackle-issues-discussed-sharm-el-sheikh