Israel Hopes for Rapprochement With Fifth Muslim Country Before Trump Exit

US White House Senior Advisor Jared Kushner looks on during a visit by Israeli envoys to Rabat, Morocco, December 22, 2020 | Photo: REUTERS
US White House Senior Advisor Jared Kushner looks on during a visit by Israeli envoys to Rabat, Morocco, December 22, 2020 | Photo: REUTERS
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Israel Hopes for Rapprochement With Fifth Muslim Country Before Trump Exit

US White House Senior Advisor Jared Kushner looks on during a visit by Israeli envoys to Rabat, Morocco, December 22, 2020 | Photo: REUTERS
US White House Senior Advisor Jared Kushner looks on during a visit by Israeli envoys to Rabat, Morocco, December 22, 2020 | Photo: REUTERS

Israel is working towards formalizing relations with a fifth Muslim country during US President Donald Trump's term, which ends next month, an Israeli government minister told Ynet TV on Wednesday.

The White House has brokered rapprochements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco this year, with Morocco hosting an Israeli-US delegation on Tuesday to flesh out the upgrade in relations.

Asked if a fifth country could sign up before Trump steps down on Jan 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.

The other candidate, further to the east, is a "Muslim country that is not small" but is not Pakistan, Akunis said.

Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country, said last week it would not recognize Israel as long as Palestinian statehood demands remain unmet.



Separate Israeli Drone Strikes Kill 4 People in Lebanon

Forensic experts and firefighters work around the wreckage of a vehicle at the site of an Israeli drone attack in Araya, east of Beirut, on November 7, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (Photo by Fadel ITANI / AFP)
Forensic experts and firefighters work around the wreckage of a vehicle at the site of an Israeli drone attack in Araya, east of Beirut, on November 7, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (Photo by Fadel ITANI / AFP)
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Separate Israeli Drone Strikes Kill 4 People in Lebanon

Forensic experts and firefighters work around the wreckage of a vehicle at the site of an Israeli drone attack in Araya, east of Beirut, on November 7, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (Photo by Fadel ITANI / AFP)
Forensic experts and firefighters work around the wreckage of a vehicle at the site of an Israeli drone attack in Araya, east of Beirut, on November 7, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (Photo by Fadel ITANI / AFP)

An Israeli drone strike on Thursday hit a car at an army checkpoint in the southern port city of Sidon, killing three people and wounding several others, including Lebanese soldiers and UN peacekeepers, Lebanon’s state news agency and the army said.

The Lebanese army said in a communique that three soldiers and four Malaysian peacekeepers were injured.

The National News Agency said one of the wounded was taken to the hospital while the peacekeepers were treated for minor injuries at the scene of the attack at the northern entrance of Sidon, Lebanon’s third-largest city. There was no immediate information on the identities of those who died.

The UN peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL said in a statement that a convoy bringing newly-arrived peacekeepers to south Lebanon was passing by when a drone strike took place near it. The strike lightly injured five peacekeepers, it said.
“We remind all actors of their obligation to avoid actions putting peacekeepers or civilians in danger. Differences should be resolved at the negotiating table, not through violence,” the statement said.

A drone strike earlier Thursday hit a car on a main highway just outside Beirut, killing one woman, according to local media.

The attack took place near Araya, where several similar drone strikes have taken place in the past week.