Pompeo says Abraham Accords discussed during meeting with Saudi FM

i24NEWS

September 29, 2020, 02:10 AMlatest revision September 29, 2020, 03:39 AM

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met on Sunday with his Saudi counterpart Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud to discuss a series of issues, including Israel’s newly signed normalization agreements with the UAE and Bahrain.

According to a statement released by the US State Department, the two diplomats “spoke of the important work aimed at advancing humanitarian aid and peace in Yemen, the need to overcome the divisions between the Gulf countries and the historic signing of the Abraham Accords.”

Soon after the official statement was released, Pompeo personally thanked the senior Saudi official on his Twitter page.

“Good to speak with the Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Faisal bin Farhan,” Pompeo wrote in the post.

“We discussed the Abraham Accords, and I thanked him for Saudi Arabia’s work to advance peace in the south of Yemen. Looking forward to a productive Strategic Dialogue in October,” he added.

Shortly after the signing of the US-brokered Abraham Accords on September 15, US President Donald Trump said “when the time comes” he expected Riyadh to also normalize ties with Israel. 

Bahrain and the UAE are the first Arab nations to establish relations with Israel since Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994.