President Biden on Thursday said he strongly supports the Abraham Accords, promoting the Trump-era declarations as a way to integrate Israel in the Middle East.
“We will also continue building on the Abraham Accords, which I strongly support because they deepen, they deepen Israel’s integration into the broader region and establish lasting ties for business, cooperation and tourism,” Biden said during a press conference in Jerusalem.
Biden also mentioned that he will fly on Friday directly from Israel to his meetings in Saudi Arabia, which is seen as a strong signal of progress on relations between the kingdom and Israel.
“Tomorrow I’ll be the first American president to fly from Israel directly to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. That represents important progress,” the president said.
The accords and normalization agreements between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain were a signature Trump administration achievement that the Biden administration has notably embraced.
While Biden officials reportedly tried to move away from the term “Abraham Accords” early in the administration, they quickly changed and hosted a summit in Israel’s Negev desert in March celebrating the accords with their signatories.
Earlier on Thursday, Biden discussed integrating Israel into the Middle East during a bilateral meeting in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who also participated in the press conference after the leaders met.
“I talked about how important it was from my perspective for Israel to be totally integrated into the region,” Biden said at the bilateral meeting.
During that meeting, Biden and Lapid discussed the president’s upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia, which Lapid called “extremely important to Israel.”