Negev forum with Arab FMs to become a regular event — Foreign Ministry

Israeli, American and Arab diplomats taking part in the Negev Summit have agreed that the conference will become a regular forum rotating between the participating countries, says Oded Yosef, the Foreign Ministry’s Deputy Director General for the Midde East.

The discussions this morning at the summit dealt directly with the security challenges facing the countries gathered at Sde Boker, Yosef adds.

Those challenges include those posed by Iran and its armed proxies, he says. “It was a very open, honest conversation about real problems, and how we deal with them together.”

He adds: “What really stood out today was that no one ignored the gaps that exist, and on the other hand, there was a very clear understanding that these gaps were meaningfully minimized.”

The “regional security architecture” under discussion at the summit would include “confronting threats from Iran and its proxies,” he says, and would feature “a meaningful US presence.

“It will include cooperation in all the areas you can think of,” he says, including in diplomacy, technology, and at international organizations.

The Biden administration is backing the initiatives coming out of the summit, he says. “There was a very clear statement by the [US] secretary of state that there is a very large commitment and presence from the US to support all of these processes.”

Yosef says the sides also discussed challenges like food security and energy at length. The Palestinian issue did come up, according to the diplomat, but it was not at the center of the conversation.

The senior diplomats at the forum were very clear in their condemnation of the recent attacks and discussed the messages that would help ensure the coming month of Ramadan would be as calm as possible.