What one meeting in Israel says about a changing world order

Attended by Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Morocco’s Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita, and UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the historic summit, held in the southern Israeli desert city of Sde Boker in the Negev desert, was the first time that the UAE and Moroccan diplomats publicly visited Israel.

The Palestinians weren’t present at the talks, but a series of attacks in Israel this month served as a reminder that the Israel-Palestinian conflict is always nearby.

And, in a sign of the ever-present divides in the region, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack, while Palestinian militant groups praised it. The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades — the armed wing of the Palestinian Fatah movement — took responsibility for the attack and said it was “a clear message written in blood in response to the Negev summit.”

Aside from turning the Abraham Accords from “ceremony to substance,” as Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has said, the meeting also illustrated the changing power structure of the region as the US pivots away from the Middle East.

Much of what bonds these countries together is a common stance on Iran, especially as negotiations to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal reach an advanced stage.

The meeting was an opportunity for the foreign ministers to express their disappointment in what they see as a weak deal, one that will only further bolster what they see as Tehran’s destabilizing activities in the region, like supporting militant organizations from Lebanon to Yemen.

“These shared interests revolve around countering Iran and dealing with the vacuum the US is leaving behind,” said Ezzedine Fishere, professor at Dartmouth College and former Egyptian diplomat in Tel Aviv. “The two issues are intertwined.”