Bipartisan senators introduce bill to expand Abraham Accords
It calls for an assessment of the future staffing and resourcing required for expanding the agreements and potential roadblocks to future agreements.
By OMRI NAHMIASUpdated: MARCH 28, 2021 20:54The US Capitol building, which contains the House of Representatives and the Senate.(photo credit: PIXABAY)
WASHINGTON – A group of 18 senators, nine Republicans and nine Democrats, has introduced a new bill that aims to strengthen and expand the Abraham Accords.Representatives Rob Portman (R-OH), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Todd Young (R-IN) and Ben Cardin (D-MD), all members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, led the “Israel Relations Normalization Act of 2021.” Fourteen additional senators joined them.The bill 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.”It calls for an assessment of the future staffing and resourcing required for expanding the agreements and potential roadblocks to future agreements.The bill 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 states, and other relevant countries and regions.”The State Department is required under the legislation to issue a report on international efforts to promote normalization, including “the status of anti-normalization laws in Arab states and other relevant countries and regions,” and “instances of prosecution of citizens or residents of Arab countries for calling for peace with Israel, visiting the state of Israel, or engaging Israeli citizens in any way.”“In my visits to the Middle East, I’ve seen the deep and abiding friendships that exist and the potential for long-term peace and stability,” Senator Portman said in a statement.He noted that the bill is an opportunity to act in a bipartisan way and that it will “encourage the normalization of relations between Israel and other countries in the region, which will help build on the success of the Abraham Accords.”Booker said in a press release Thursday that expanding the Abraham Accords “is not only a vital US security interest but is also important for peace and economic prosperity in the region.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in several opportunities that the administration supports the normalization process and would like to build on them.“I hope that the progress that was made with the Abraham Accords, which I applaud – the steps that countries are taking to normalize relations with Israel is an extremely positive development and one that we would hope to build on, if given the opportunity,” Blinken said in his confirmation hearing at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in January.
