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Blinken: US warned Israel that West Bank tensions could undermine Saudi normalization

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it would be tough, if not impossible, to deepen and expand the Abraham Accords if the violence continues in the West Bank.
West Bank violence

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Wednesday that tensions in the West Bank could undermine efforts to normalize ties between Israel and Arab states, including Saudi Arabia. 

Speaking at an event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations on Wednesday, Blinken described normalization between the two countries as a “real prospect” but “not something that can happen overnight.” 

Saudi-Israel normalization would represent a major foreign policy achievement for the Biden administration as it seeks to expand its predecessor’s Abraham Accords. The two countries, who share a common enemy in Iran, have a clandestine security relationship dating back to the 1960s. 

But Saudi Arabia and other regional holdouts have said they need to see progress on a two-state solution before establishing ties with Israel. That looks unlikely under Israel’s most right-wing government in its history, members of which have advocated for a major expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and changing the status quo at Jerusalem’s holy sites. 

Israel’s government recently approved more than 5,000 new housing units in settlements across the West Bank. The decision came days after a pair of Palestinian gunmen fatally shot four Israelis outside the Eli settlement. In an apparent reprisal, some 400 armed Jewish settlers then torched cars, homes and orchards in the West Bank town of Turmus Aya. 

US officials have warned their Israeli counterparts that the recent settler violence and settlement expansion plans have jeopardized prospects for normalization. 

"We told our friends and allies in Israel that if there's a fire burning in their back yard, it's going to be a lot tougher, if not impossible, to actually both deepen the existing agreements, as well as to expand them, to include potentially Saudi Arabia,” Blinken said Wednesday, adding that he discussed the issue with Netanyahu and Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen.

His comments comes days after Saudi Ambassador to the United States Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud said the kingdom was seeking "integration" with Israel but that the Netanyahu-led government’s policies were complicating those efforts. 

Current signatories to the Abraham Accords are also growing impatient with Israel. Last week, Morocco confirmed it was again postponing a meeting of senior officials from Israel, the United States and several Arab countries until after the summer, citing increased settlement activity and turmoil in the West Bank.

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