Israeli foreign minister discusses strategy for 'expanding and deepening the Abraham Accords' with Blinken

On Tuesday, Israel's foreign minister traveled to India to deepen its close diplomatic and military ties with the Asian superpower

Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Monday that Foreign Minister Eli Cohen discussed diplomatic developments in the Middle East with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a phone conversation.

"Foreign Minister Eli Cohen updated the Secretary of State on recent Israeli activity with the goal of promoting regional stability and the two discussed advancing additional normalization moves, as part of expanding and deepening the Abraham Accords," read the official statement.

The Israeli top diplomat also discussed "the advancement of diplomatic steps in the region" on Monday in Jerusalem with Amos Hochstein, a senior U.S. Biden administration envoy. Hochstein previously played a central role in realizing the historic maritime-boundary agreement between Israel and Lebanon in 2022.

During the tenure of former-U.S. President Donald Trump, the Jewish state signed four historic normalization agreements in 2020, with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.

On Tuesday, Cohen traveled to India to meet with senior officials, including India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as Jerusalem hopes to deepen its close diplomatic and military ties with the Asian superpower.

In addition, Israel is seeking assistance from India to advance the Arab-Israeli Abraham Accords. Unlike the U.S., India has good diplomatic relations with all key players in the Middle East.

The Jewish state is eagerly eyeing a potential normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia, one of the key players in the Middle East region. Riyadh and Jerusalem currently do not have official diplomatic relations. However, Saudi Arabia played an important role in advancing the historic Arab-Israeli normalization agreements in 2020.

U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan recently revealed that normalized Israeli-Saudi ties was an important U.S. national security interest in the Middle East.