Jerusalem:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday he seeks peace with Arab countries, after a year of war in Gaza and Lebanon which has stoked Arab anger.
He spoke as Washington seeks to rally Arab countries around long-term plans for post-war governance in the Gaza Strip, and further normalisation deals with Israel following the 2020 Abraham Accords.
“I aspire to continue the process I went through a few years ago, with the signing of the historic Abraham Accords, in order to achieve peace with other Arab countries,” Netanyahu said in a speech to lawmakers as Israel’s parliament began its winter session.
The US-brokered Abraham Accords saw Gulf countries Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, as well as Morocco, establish formal ties with Israel.
“I emphasise peace for peace, peace out of strength with important countries in the Middle East,” Netanyahu said Monday.
“These countries and other countries see very well the blows we inflict on those who attack us, the Iranian axis of evil,” he added, two days after Israel bombed military targets in Iran, as retaliation for an Iranian missile barrage on Israel.
“They are impressed by our determination and courage. Like us, they aspire to a stable, secure, prosperous Middle East.”
The Abraham Accords were reached under the administration of then-president Donald Trump, who is seeking a return to the White House.
The United States, Israel’s main backer, has long sought to broker an eventual agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel, which would entail US security guarantees for the kingdom.
Washington has hoped to give an incentive to Netanyahu to stop the war and gain a powerful Arab ally, the guardian of Islam’s two holiest sites.
Riyadh, however, has conditioned any such agreement on the recognition of an independent Palestinian state — a prospect rejected by Israel.
Saudi Arabia did not join the 2020 deals and has never recognised Israel.
An agreement had nevertheless seemed closer last year, before the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, which sparked the deadliest ever war in Gaza.
Last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken sought to make headway with Saudi Arabia on normalisation with Israel.
The top US diplomat flew directly from Tel Avivi in Israel to the Saudi capital Riyadh, on a tour of the Middle East days before the US election.
“There remains, despite everything that’s happened, an incredible opportunity in this region to move in a totally different direction,” Blinken said minutes before he left Israel.
“Saudi Arabia would be right at the heart of that, and that includes potentially normalisation of relations with Israel.”
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