From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, August 6, 2019
FM seeks peace agreements with Gulf states in ‘coming years’
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleForeign Minister Israel Katz says that promoting Israel’s rapprochement with the Arab world is his top priority, adding that it was realistic to expect formal peace deals with moderate Sunni Gulf states within a few years.
“My goal, with the full backing of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is to work toward an overt normalization, to extend it and turn it public, and to get to the signing of diplomatic [peace] agreements with the Gulf states. This is the challenge; this is the goal,” he tells the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
Noting Israel’s peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan, Katz (Likud) says it was “realistic” to expect full normalization with the Gulf states “in the coming years,” even in the absence of a comprehensive peace deal with the Palestinians.
“We don’t have border disputes. We don’t have any other disputes,” he said. Israel and the Arab world have different views on the Palestinian issue, but these arguments should not stand in the way of a wider Arab-Israel detente, he said.
— Raphael Ahren
The Times of Israel Community.