Foreign ministers from Israel, the United States and four Arab Gulf nations met Monday in Israel's Negev region for an unprecedented summit. While most commentary on the meeting put the focus on Iran — and Washington's effort to assure partners it would maintain a tough line on Tehran as nuclear talks wrap up in Vienna — it appears the goal of the gathering went beyond that. The summit, bringing together senior diplomats from Israel's US and Arab partners, appears to be aimed at giving regional legitimacy to Israel almost two years after the signing of the Abraham Accords.

Mofid Deak, a former US diplomat now living in Jordan, told Al-Monitor that he believes the meeting is all about showing there is a new regional coalition being formed that includes Israel. “This is the first time that Arab countries of the Abraham Accords are meeting in Israel.”

The Abraham Accords refer to a series of agreements beginning in August 2020 that normalized relations between Israel, the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco. 

While the main focus of the Negev summit was certainly supposed to be Iran, especially after the aggressive attacks by Houthis against the UAE and Saudi Arabia, Deak said he still thinks a renewed Iran deal will be reached. However, he noted, the US administration "wants to soothe the feelings of its allies." Meanwhile, Deak added, "Israel wants to show that it is not the only side opposing the deal — that there are Arabs who oppose it as well.”