UAE, US, Israeli FMs to Meet in Washington Soon to Boost Abraham Accords

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) meets Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid (R) in Rome in June 2021. (AFP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) meets Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid (R) in Rome in June 2021. (AFP)
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UAE, US, Israeli FMs to Meet in Washington Soon to Boost Abraham Accords

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) meets Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid (R) in Rome in June 2021. (AFP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) meets Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid (R) in Rome in June 2021. (AFP)

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid will hold a trilateral meeting in Washington with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan in the coming days, political sources in Tel Aviv said.

The meeting aims to discuss cooperation between the three countries within the framework of the Abraham Accords, in addition to Iran and the Biden administration’s nuclear talks with Tehran.

Lapid is expected to travel to Washington on Monday for talks with senior Biden administration officials, including Blinken, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Lapid’s office said that three ministers should discuss progress made in the Emirati-Israeli relations since the signing of the Abraham Accords last year, and to study additional opportunities to boost peace in the Middle East, in addition to security issues and regional stability.

Blinken last month pledged to encourage more Arab countries to normalize relations with Israel as he hosted a virtual meeting with Israeli and Arab counterparts to mark the first anniversary of the set of landmark diplomatic agreements.

The leaders of Israel, the UAE and Bahrain signed the Abraham Accords, widely seen as a diplomatic success for former President Donald Trump, at the White House in September of last year.

Biden has backed the deals since taking office in January, and senior aides have said they were working to get additional Arab countries to normalize relations with Israel after decades of enmity.



WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
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WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)

The World Health Organization is sending more than one million polio vaccines to Gaza to be administered over the coming weeks to prevent children being infected after the virus was detected in sewage samples, its chief said on Friday.

"While no cases of polio have been recorded yet, without immediate action, it is just a matter of time before it reaches the thousands of children who have been left unprotected," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in an opinion piece in Britain's The Guardian newspaper.

He wrote that children under five were most at risk from the viral disease, and especially infants under two since normal vaccination campaigns have been disrupted by more than nine months of conflict.

Poliomyelitis, which is spread mainly through the fecal-oral route, is a highly infectious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis. Cases of polio have declined by 99% worldwide since 1988 thanks to mass vaccination campaigns and efforts continue to eradicate it completely.

Israel's military said on Sunday it would start offering the polio vaccine to soldiers serving in the Gaza Strip after remnants of the virus were found in test samples in the enclave.

Besides polio, the UN reported last week a widespread increase in cases of Hepatitis A, dysentery and gastroenteritis as sanitary conditions deteriorate in Gaza, with sewage spilling into the streets near some camps for displaced people.