Katz Says Rapprochement with Arab World Is «Top Priority»

By Staff, Agencies

“Israeli” officials, including the “Israeli” entity’s so-called Foreign and Intelligence Minister Israel Katz, continue to stress the need for improvement in relationships between Tel Aviv and the Arab states, while dozens of Palestinians were injured in recent clashes with the “Israeli” Occupation Forces [IOF] on August 3.

“My goal, with the full backing of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is to work toward an overt normalization,” Katz said in front of the Knesset on Tuesday, 6 August, according to the “Israe4li” daily Times of “Israel”. "[T]o extend it and turn it public, and to get to the signing of diplomatic agreements with the Gulf states. This is the challenge, this is the goal.”

Katz insisted that the entity’s rapprochement with the Arab states comes as his “top priority” which he perceives as “realistic”. He also underlined that the entity expects to conclude formal treaties with Gulf countries in the next few years.

Although there are still strong disagreements between the “Israeli” entity and many Arab states over the Palestinian issue, cooperation is still possible between Tel Aviv and its Middle Eastern “frenemies”, argued Katz, who used the example of growing trade with Turkey to illustrate the possibility of collaboration despite a strained relationships with Turkey’s President Erdogan.

Katz earlier visited the United Arab Emirates in July during the United Nations conference on climate, where he met with a senior government official whose name he did not disclose.

In the meantime, clashes between Palestinians and the IOF erupted near the occupied Gaza Strip border on Friday, August 2, with more than 30 Palestinians injured.