House Committee approves bill to strengthen and expand Abraham Accords

• Author: OMRI NAHMIAS
• Published date: 02 October 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee already adopted the bipartisan version of the bill, which requires the State Department to provide a strategy "to strengthen and expand the Abraham Accords and other related normalization agreements with Israel."

If signed into law, the State Department would be required to provide "a detailed description of how the US government will leverage diplomatic lines of effort and resources from other stakeholders to encourage normalization, economic development and people-to-people programming."

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The bill states that "it is the policy of the United States to expand and strengthen the Abraham Accords to encourage other nations to normalize relations with Israel and ensure that existing agreements reap tangible security and economic benefits for the citizens of those countries."

In addition, it calls to develop and implement "a regional strategy to encourage economic cooperation among Israel, Arab states and the Palestinians to enhance the prospects for regional peace, respect for human rights [and] transparent governance," among other issues.

The bill calls for an assessment of the future staffing and resourcing required for expanding the agreements and potential roadblocks to future agreements.

It also seeks recommendations to improve the coordination between the Special Envoy to Monitor Antisemitism and the ambassador for International Religious Freedom to combat racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia and antisemitism, "which hinder the improvement of relations between Israel, Arab...