Delegates descend on the Eternal City for first annual Abraham Accords summit
Leading figures from religious and political life hear how Saudi Arabia is likely to join Bahrain and the UAE in normalising relations with Israel
Political and religious figures from dozens of countries converged on Rome on Thursday to discuss way of deepening ties to follow up on agreements reached in 2020 to normalise Arab world ties with Israel.
Delegates heard from representatives of countries who signed up to the Abraham Accords, including Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, while Danny Danon, Israel’s former ambassador to the United Nations, said it was now just a matter of time before Saudi Arabia joined the group.
“The hardest part was going public,” said Danon. “We have been in contact with the Saudis for years – I worked personally with them at the UN on matters of regional stability and security.
“It’s just a matter of time before courageous leaders step out of the shadows and full peace is achieved between all the children of Abraham. I expect we’ll see an agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia this year.”
The gathering for the First Annual Abraham Accords Global Leadership Summit included world leaders, ambassadors, diplomats, entrepreneurs, lawmakers, academics, and clergy.
Attendees included Houda Nonoo, the former Bahraini ambassador to the US, as well as Imam Mohammad Tawhidi, vice-president of the Global Imams Council, and Rev. Philip Larrey, a dean at the Vatican’s Pontifical Lateran University.
Rabbi Dr Elie Abadie, senior rabbi of the UAE, recalled being a young Jewish boy fleeing his hometown of Beirut. “I would have never dreamed that one day I would be serving as a rabbi in an Arab country, never mind an Arab country with a rapidly growing Jewish community that has signed a peace accord with Israel.”
He added that we are “living in profound times and must seize the opportunities that lay before us”.
Tawhidi, an Iranian-born Shi’a Muslim scholar, said: “It is hard for some people to imagine that Israel and Iran were close allies just 43 years ago. I come here today, as a free Iranian to tell you that peace between Israel, Iran, and even between the Shi’a and the Sunni world is closer than ever.”
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