New US envoy wraps up regional tour aimed at getting Negev Forum back on track
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
The Biden administration’s new envoy for expanding the Abraham Accords has just wrapped up his first trip to the region, where he worked on getting the Negev Forum back on track, in the aftermath of repeated delays sparked by Arab discomfort with the hardline Israeli government’s policies toward the Palestinians.
US Senior Adviser for Regional Integration Dan Shapiro visited Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Israel during his trip, meeting with Foreign Minister Eli Cohen during the latter stop. He also recently met with Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani in Washington, the State Department says.
Shapiro met with “a range of government and civil society leaders to advance integration in the region, including through the Negev Forum,” the State Department adds.
The Negev Forum, which aims to advance regional projects between the US, Israel, and several of their Arab allies, was supposed to convene in Morocco for its second-ever ministerial gathering in January, but that meeting has been repeatedly delayed by Rabat.
It had most recently been set to take place in July, but Morocco again backed out, following Israel’s advancement of thousands new settlement homes for construction in the West Bank. While Israeli officials have expressed optimism that Morocco will agree to hold the forum in September, such an announcement by Rabat has not yet been made.
