by Tamara Traubmann-Santos
JERUSALEM, March 29 (Xinhua) -- The first gathering of Israel-Arab foreign ministers has helped boost Israel's ties with certain Arab countries as they share concerns about reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, said experts.
The two-day conference that ended on Monday brought together Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and his counterparts from four Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Morocco and Egypt, to the Israeli resort of Sde Boker in the southern Negev desert.
"What we are doing here is making history. Building a new regional architecture based on progress, technology, religious tolerance, security, and intelligence cooperation," said Lapid, who initiated the meeting which was also attended by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Lapid announced that the conference would become a yearly event in future, hosted by the participating countries in turns every year.
"Just a few years ago, this gathering would be impossible to imagine," Blinken said, hailing the meeting as the latest indication of how the new ties could expand across the region.
UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan praised the strengthened ties between his country and Israel.
"If we are curious sometimes, and we want to know things and learn, it's because although Israel has been part of this region for a very long time, we've not known each other. So it's time to catch up," he said.
LANDMARK MEETING
"The most important achievement of the summit was the fact that it took place," said Yoel Guzansky, a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies, a Tel Aviv-based think tank.
When Israel signed in 2020 the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords with the UAE and Bahrain, and later with Morocco, it was unclear how substantial the ties could be.
In less than two years, the first summit of top diplomats became a symbol of unity. Egypt, the first Arab state which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, also took part in the conference, though Jordan, the second Arab state which made peace with Israel in 1994, was absent.
Jordan declined the invitation. During the six-party conference, Jordanian King Abdullah II chose to visit Ramallah in the occupied West Bank to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, underscoring his solidarity with the Palestinians.
Guzansky said that the conference highlighted the "importance of Israel" in the region and sent signals to Israel's enemies, mainly Iran, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas which rules the Palestinian enclave of Gaza Strip.
He noted that the regional defense system, which is "gradually being built," is heavily reliant on Israel and the Gulf Arab countries.
"However, there are pieces missing in this puzzle -- mainly Saudi Arabia, which is unlikely to normalize ties with Israel before the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is resolved," Guzansky said.
EMERGING NUCLEAR DEAL
Israel initiated the gathering amid tensions between the U.S. and its Middle Eastern allies. Israel and the Gulf Arab countries share concerns over the possible revival of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, under which the U.S. eased sanctions in exchange for Iran's commitment to curb its nuclear program.
The previous U.S. administration under President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the pact in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Iran. However, the current U.S. government under President Joe Biden seeks to restore the deal through talks held in the Austrian capital of Vienna.
The Vienna talks, which have been held for eight rounds so far, are reportedly nearing an agreement. Israel, Iran's arch foe in the region, has been steadfast against renewing the deal, fearing that it would enable Iran to obtain nuclear weapons without the burden of U.S. sanctions.
In a bid to soothe the worries of Israel and Arab states, Blinken vowed that the U.S. will continue to work together with its allies to confront "common security challenges and threats, including those from Iran and its proxies."
Ori Goldberg, an Israeli expert on Iran from the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy at the Reichman University in Herzliya, said that the U.S. intention to restore the nuclear deal prompted Israel to hold the meeting.
"Israel wants a gesture of keeping the option for a regional action (against Iran)," Goldberg said, adding that Israel practically has no tangible support for such an action as the conference issued no clear statement on the Iranian issue.
Chen Kertcher, a lecturer in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at the Ariel University in the West Bank, said the meeting came amid growing discontent between the U.S. and Gulf Arab countries.
Gulf Arab countries wish to receive more support from the U.S. in countering the attacks from the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, while Washington urges them to produce more oil to calm the oil market following the Russia-Ukraine conflict, said Kertcher.
So far, the Gulf Arab states, mainly Saudi Arabia and the UAE which boast spare capacity, have given Washington the cold shoulder by refusing to abruptly increase oil output. Instead, they insist on sticking to the plan for slowly increasing oil production as set by the OPEC+, of which Russia is a part.
Guzansky believed that, in view of the rising tensions, Israel "is emerging as the go-between for the United States and Gulf countries." ■
