Consolidating fresh allegiances in Mideast reaches new summit
https://arab.news/bjh6v
Not that long ago, the mere suggestion of Israel hosting a summit at which four foreign ministers from Arab countries, together with the US secretary of state, would sit around the table would have been treated as a sheer fantasy.
Last week, a year and a half after the signing of the Abraham Accords, such an event took place, and it felt almost like a natural progression from the nascent and behind-closed-doors relations of earlier times. It was a clear expression of the growing mutual interests of Israel, Egypt, the UAE, Morocco and Bahrain that sent their foreign ministers to this summit in the Negev desert kibbutz of Sde Boker.
This high-powered meeting followed on the heels of another summit last week, in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, where President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi of Egypt, the UAE’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met to discuss the main challenges the region faces. The top of the agenda, as was the case at Sde Boker, was Iran.
A US secretary of state taking time away from the cauldron of the Ukraine crisis to fly to the Middle East might not be an obvious course of action, but it has become a priority for Washington to consolidate support for NATO’s front against Russia and ensure there are no signs of cracks in it. Anthony Blinken was there not only to give America’s blessing to this far-reaching change in the region’s political architecture, but also to assuage the doubts of concerned allies who are not only suspicious that the US is scaling down its interests in the Middle East to concentrate on other areas, namely China and Russia, but even more acutely concerned by what they perceive as Washington’s rush into a new nuclear deal with Iran.
There is a common thread uniting all the participants in the Negev Summit, as well as most other countries in the region: All of them view the return of the US to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with grave misgivings. They harbor little trust in Tehran’s intentions, and are extremely worried by the prospect of the removal of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps from Washington’s list of designated foreign terrorist organizations.
The development of nuclear capability by Iran is a major threat, but the IRGC is an immediate one that manifests itself in too many parts of the region. If, as appears to be the case, the US is prepared to make such a concession, it would take more than a summit to allay the fears of the White House’s allies in the Middle East that it is looking for quick fixes that will come to haunt the entire region in due course.
Iran has for some time provided a strong impetus for Israel and other regional powers to put pressure on the international community to stop its nuclear program, and equally contain the aggression of Tehran and its proxies’ aggression toward them. For instance, it was reported that Israel and its new allies in the Middle East are developing a communications system that will allow each of them to warn the others in real time about incoming drones, mainly to curtail the actions of Iran and groups like Hezbollah and the Houthis. This, and further close military and intelligence cooperation, signals a new security architecture that is demarcating clear lines of alliances and enmities in the region.
Without progress on the Palestinian issue, regional cooperation will be unable to reach its full potential.
Yossi Mekelberg
In the midst of this summit’s celebratory mood, the news of a terrorist attack by two Daesh-inspired gunmen in the town of Hadera, which left two Israeli policemen dead and five others injured before the gunmen were shot dead themselves, reached the participants and understandably dampened the mood. All were quick to condemn the attack, demonstrating a united front in the face of such indiscriminate violence. This high-profile meeting of foreign ministers in the midst of what appears to be a nascent wave of terrorist attacks inside Israel highlighted the threat emanating from extremism across the region and the urgent need to unite in confronting it, and deal with its root causes.
For Israel, both summits were an opportunity for the Bennett/Lapid government to come of age and assert itself as one playing a leading role in taking the Abraham Accords to the next level of regional cooperation. It was also a move aimed to bust the myth that only the former prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, could build close relations with the regional powers. The recent attacks will also present it with an opportunity to assert itself on domestic security.
If Iran was one of the major topics that instinctively brought the participating countries together, the major elephant in the room was, and will remain, the Palestinian issue. Regrettably, it was the attacks in the heart of Israel that brought home the fact that, as much as the Abraham Accords and the continuing improvement in relations between Israel and other Arab countries has been a welcome development, the dark cloud of the unresolved Israel-Palestinian conflict still casts a long shadow over what is an important and positive change in the region.
All participants mentioned the importance of resolving the conflict along the lines of a two-state solution. Nevertheless, this was not accompanied by a concrete plan or timeline on how to advance this cause, which lives as no more than an aspiration, if not mere lip service. Since President Joe Biden entered the White House, the most obvious constructive gesture he could make — reopening the US Consulate in Jerusalem which served as a de facto embassy for the Palestinians until Donald Trump closed it in 2019 — has remained elusive. Without progress on the Palestinian issue, regional cooperation will be unable to shift to a higher gear or reach its full potential.
The decision to convene this forum annually, with an alternating host country, and with the hope of adding others to this alliance, is a very powerful declaration of intent in terms of creating a different Middle East that is more collaborative and progressive, partnering not only on hard security matters but also on economic development and technology, while also promoting cultural and religious tolerance.
• Yossi Mekelberg is professor of international relations and an associate fellow of the MENA Program at Chatham House. He is a regular contributor to the international written and electronic media. Twitter: @YMekelberg
