More normalization agreements on the way?
While the progress in establishing relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia cooled following the crisis between the US and Saudi Arabia, they are now working to carve a path with four countries and expand the Abraham Accords in the coming months. Israel Hayom has learned that Foreign Minister Eli Cohen and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are working with Mauritania, Somalia, Niger and Indonesia for a breakthrough in establishing relations with them.
Behind the scenes, Prime Minister Netanyahu is involved in promoting the talks, of course, and senior officials in the US State Department, including Anthony Blinken, Jake Sullivan and Amos Hochstein. More advanced talks are taking place with Mauritania, as hinted just last week by Foreign Minister Cohen in a meeting with the German Foreign Minister. So he officially asked her to use her connections to help Israel break through against Mauritania and Niger.
The Great Mosque in Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania, photo: GettyImages
Maturing relationships
Mauritania previously had diplomatic relations with Israel, which were officially established in 1999 and ended about a decade later following Operation Cast Lead in 2010.
While vis-à-vis Mauritania it is almost a question of maturing relations, Israel is working simultaneously with Somalia and Niger to build medium-level relations in the first stage.
Diplomatic relations have never existed with Somalia, but in the past year it has been reported several times that the current president Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud is interested in such.
Israel has an interest in relations with the country, partly because of its strategic location between the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean at the entrance to the Red Sea.
Until now, there have been no official relations with Niger, but even those that existed for a short period unofficially suffered shocks during the Yom Kippur War and the Second Intifada - and since then no efforts have been made on Israel's part to re-establish relations.
Israel has two interests vis-à-vis the country, which is considered backward: one is that Niger is a global supplier of uranium and ties with Israel can thwart the sale of the material to hostile countries, and the second is the reduction of the country's votes against Israel in international forums.
Working behind the scenes on a political breakthrough.
Netanyahu and Cohen, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, photo: AFP
The explosive meter
On another front, Minister Cohen is trying to establish a beginning of relations with Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world.
Indonesia does not maintain official relations with Israel, but in recent years unofficial relations have been established between the countries in the fields of trade, technology and tourism.
But the agreements and celebrations, as well as an official breakthrough with the four countries, will have to wait until the end of the month of Ramadan on April 20.
In the Muslim world, they will closely monitor the government's dealings with terrorist attacks in the coming month, if there are any, but mainly the issue of the Temple Mount and maintaining the status quo there.
Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, photo: GettyImages
This is why Israel agreed to hold the official meeting in Jordan, to try to control the atmosphere ahead of the tense days in Jerusalem vis-a-vis Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.
The explosiveness gauge is still very high and may slow down the progress made so far against the four countries.
Both Israel and the US will try to act so that the tense days do not set back the efforts achieved so far.
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