Negev Forum delayed due to Israeli attacks on Palestinians

ByNews Desk- The Cradle 

The UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco all agreed to normalize ties with Israel in 2020 as part of the Abraham Accords

Flags of the UAE, US, Israel, Bahrain, Morocco, and Egypt at the follow-up to the Negev Summit in Manama, Bahrain on 27 June 2022. (Photo credit: @AlonUshpiz / Twitter)

Due to Israel’s recent assaults on Palestinians in the occupied territories, a scheduled gathering of the foreign ministers of the Abraham Accords’ signatories, also known as the Negev Forum, has been postponed.

No date has been established for the meeting, which was scheduled to take place in the Western Sahara next month, reported Israel Hayom news on 22 February.

According to Israeli news sources, the meeting’s host country, Morocco, voiced its displeasure over the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, as well as with the policies of Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

An unnamed Moroccan official stated that numerous other nations have backed the “wait and see” strategy, adding that none of the parties want to host such a high-level meeting if tensions continue to rise in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, or the Gaza Strip.

The nations of the Negev Forum are determined to only conduct another meeting if it results in a significant initiative that also benefits the Palestinians.

Just six weeks ago, on 9 January, the Negev Forum member states held working group meetings in Abu Dhabi to advance regional projects, but Jordan remained absent from the meeting, The Jerusalem Post reported.

“The convening of the Negev Forum working groups in the Emirates is a further step in advancing and deepening the Abraham Accords,” Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said in a message to the participants at the time.

Abraham Accord members UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco attended the first foreign ministers’ summit last march in the Negev. Egypt, which is not an Abraham Accord signatory, but which signed a peace agreement with Israel in 1979, also joined the Negev Forum.

Although Jordan has been invited to the forum and has had a peace agreement with Israel since 1994, it has not yet attended a meeting.

Jordanian officials have previously indicated that they are not prepared to join the Negev Forum as long as Palestinians are excluded from the gathering. However, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has shown no interest in collaborating with the collective initiative.

Palestinian resistance movements have condemned the forum as another attempt to legitimize the normalization deals that Israel signed with the above Arab countries in 2020.

The PA accused Tel Aviv of using the forum to hide atrocities committed by the Israeli army inside the occupied Palestinian territories.