WASHINGTON — The Trump administration sought on Tuesday to check the waters to decide if it might probably persuade different Arab and Muslim international locations to set up full diplomatic relations with Israel after a breakthrough settlement by the United Arab Emirates to open regular ties.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Sudan and Bahrain, two of the administration’s high prospects for bringing Israel along with extra of its neighbors in a area the place it has confronted generations of hostility. However American officers cautioned that the state of affairs remained fluid and nobody ought to anticipate in a single day agreements.
To take care of a way of momentum, President Trump is sending a delegation to Israel subsequent week to accompany high-level Israeli officers on the primary direct industrial flight between Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, most likely on an El Al provider with its conventional Star of David on the tail. The delegations will search to forge cooperation within the aviation, safety, well being and banking sectors, amongst others, in accordance with the settlement that the 2 nations introduced two weeks in the past.
“This can be a historic settlement,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel mentioned in a press release. “It should carry engines of progress. It may possibly assist result in an financial flourishing basically and throughout the corona period specifically. I hope that different international locations in our area will be part of the cycle of peace.”
Reflecting on the inaugural flight to the Emirates, scheduled for Monday, Mr. Netanyahu added: “I additionally hope that you simply, residents of Israel, will even give you the option to go to Dubai and Abu Dhabi quickly. There’s a lot to see there.”
The American delegation might be led by Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser who has led efforts to forge peace within the Center East, together with Robert C. O’Brien, the nationwide safety adviser; Avi Berkowitz, Mr. Trump’s Center East envoy; and Brian Hook, the outgoing special envoy for Iran.
Officials did not comment on the route the plane would take, which involves diplomacy of its own. While El Al has regular service with Jordan, it would need to fly through airspace where it is normally not allowed, over either Iraq or Saudi Arabia. Iraq’s prime minister visited Mr. Trump at the White House last week, which may have cleared the way.
If fulfilled, the Aug. 13 agreement, called the Abraham Accord, would make the Emirates the third Arab nation along with Egypt and Jordan to have full diplomatic relations with Israel, including the exchange of embassies and ambassadors. The Emirates signed off on the deal after Israel agreed to suspend annexation of parts of the West Bank.
The White House hopes to enlist others to follow suit, with Sudan, Bahrain and Oman at the top of the list, in effect formalizing a growing Israeli-Arab alignment against Iran, even at the expense of the Palestinians, who complained about being abandoned.
From there, he flew to Bahrain, the place he tweeted: “The Abraham Accords present that peace is achievable. Seizing the momentum is significant.”
However there are complicating elements. Sudan has been dominated by a transitional authorities because the fall of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir final 12 months, and a spokesman was quoted telling information companies that it “doesn’t have a mandate” to “determine on normalization with Israel.”
Furthermore, Sudan needs one thing from the US — to be taken off the record of state sponsors of terrorism, a designation it has had because the 1990s when it sheltered Osama bin Laden — which might assist reintegrate its struggling economic system with that of the skin world.
Mr. Pompeo needs Sudan to compensate victims of the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in East Africa earlier than it’s faraway from the record, whereas Sudan needs Congress to present immunity in opposition to future lawsuits stemming from previous terrorist incidents.
Lara Jakes contributed reporting from Washington, and David M. Halbfinger from Jerusalem.
