Likud Minister Ofir Akunis in Jerusalem on May 28, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
A minister in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud said Wednesday that Israel was pushing to normalize relations with another Muslim country before US President Donald Trump leaves office next month.
Regional Cooperation Minister Ofir Akunis said two countries were considered the favorites to soon reach a rapprochement with Israel, but refused to name them.
“It will be an interesting country,” he told the Ynet news site.
Akunis said one of the country’s was in the Gulf and could be Oman, but wasn’t Saudi Arabia. Oman, which has praised the US-brokered normalization deals and hosted Netanyahu for a visit in 2018, has been rumored in recent months to be among the next Arab states that could establish formal ties with Israel.
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Asked if a fifth country could sign up before Trump steps down on January 20, Israeli Regional Cooperation Minister Ofir Akunis told Ynet TV: We are working in that direction. There will be an American announcement about another country that is going public with the normalization of relations with Israel and, in essence, with the infrastructure for an accord – a peace accord, he said.
He declined to name the country but said there were two main candidates. One is in the Gulf, he said, giving Oman as a possibility while adding that Saudi Arabia is not.
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US President Donald Trump listens as Adam Boehler, CEO of U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, speaks about the coronavirus in the Rose Garden of the White House, Tuesday, April 14, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
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Bloomberg
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