President Herzog meets Secretary of State Rubio

On the fifth anniversary of the signing of the Abraham Accords, President Isaac Herzog today, met in Jerusalem with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio who was visiting Jerusalem.

During their meeting the President reiterated the urgent need to bring the hostages home, and spoke of the importance of working towards a more peaceful and stable Middle East.

After a private meeting the two made brief remarks before a wider bilateral meeting.

President Herzog welcomed Secretary Rubio and said: “Mr. Secretary, we’re very happy to have you in Israel. I especially want to mention that today, exactly today is five years to the signing of the Abraham Accord on the White House Lawn. That was a very important historic moment in the history of the Middle East, when agreements that were brokered under the auspices of President Donald Trump, as part of his great legacy to bring peace to the Middle East and to the world, were signed between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the representatives of the Kingdom of Morocco, the Kingdom of Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates. Mr. Secretary, we bless those agreements every day. They’ve brought enormous change to everybody’s lives in the Middle East, and these allies that signed the agreement, despite all the storms of the Middle East, have kept these agreements going, and it is very important to upgrade and enhance and foster and bring more partners to these agreements.”

He added, “I want to thank all the partners of the agreements and of course, we are most grateful to the United States of America for being there always in times of war and in times of peace, thank you.”

Secretary Rubio responded: “Thank you, Mr. President, I think it’s appropriate we’re here on the fifth anniversary of that historic accord. Imagine, despite the difficulties the region has confronted over the last few years, how much more difficult they would have been had the Abraham Accords not been in place, and we’re obviously incredibly grateful as well just from the perspective of the United States to Morocco and Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates. They’re also strong partners of ours on a bilateral basis, not to mention as part of this agreement. As you said, not only does this agreement with these existing partners need to continue to be strengthened and built upon, but it needs to be expanded. There are other countries that have expressed an interest in being a part of this — and one of the great promises of the era is the ability, under President Trump’s second term, to be able to build upon the foundation of the Abraham Accords and expand it to more countries who want to join in something like this. And so it’s also part of our focus. But we are very grateful to our partners and to those who are part of those accords now and grateful to be here today on the fifth anniversary of it to remind us the progress that was made and the opportunities that lie ahead.