The Negev Summit is a conference that took place on 27–28 March 2022 in

Sde Boker Sde Boker ( he, שְׂדֵה בּוֹקֵר, lit. ''Herding Field'') is a kibbutz in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Best known as the retirement home of Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, it falls under the jurisdiction of Ramat ...

, Israel, in which Israeli Foreign Minister

Yair Lapid Yair Lapid ( he, יָאִיר לַפִּיד, transliterated: , ; born 5 November 1963) is an Israeli politician and former journalist who has been serving as the 14th prime minister of Israel since 1 July 2022. He previously served as the alt ...

hosted the foreign ministers of

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

and the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

, as well as U.S. Secretary of State

Antony Blinken Antony John Blinken (born April 16, 1962) is an American government official and diplomat serving as the 71st United States secretary of state since January 26, 2021. He previously served as deputy national security advisor from 2013 to 2015 and ...

. The four Arab countries present at the conference were represented by their Foreign Ministers:

Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan ( ar, عبد الله بن زايد بن سلطان آل نهيان; born 30 April 1972) is the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the United Arab Emirates. He is a son o ...

, Foreign Minister of the United Arab Emirates;

Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani , honorific-suffix = , order = , office = Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bahrain , term_start = 11 February 2020 , deputy = , monarch = Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa , primeminister = Salman b ...

, from Bahrain;

Nasser Bourita Nasser Bourita ( ar, ناصر بوريطة; born ) is a Morocco, Moroccan diplomat serving as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates (Morocco), Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Ex ...

, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Morocco;

Sameh Shoukry Sameh Hassan Shoukry ( ar, سامح شكري; born 20 October 1952) is an Egyptian diplomat who has been Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt since 2014. Previously, Shoukry served as the Ambassador of Egypt to the United States from 2008 to 2 ...

, Foreign Minister from Egypt. It was reported that the purpose of the summit was a demonstration of a united political and security front against Iran, against the background of the striving for the renewal of a nuclear agreement by the

P5+1 P5 may refer to: In science and technology * 311P/PANSTARRS, also known as P/2013 P5 (PANSTARRS), an asteroid discovered by the Pan-STARRS telescope on 27 August 2013 * P5 Truss Segment, an element of the International Space Station * Period ...

powers and Iran, and against Iran's aggression throughout the Middle East. On March 28, 2022, it was announced that the conference was to become an annual forum, to be called the .

History

The meeting was organized by Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and its primary purpose was to establish an international alliance against the

nuclear program of Iran The nuclear program of Iran is an ongoing scientific effort by Iran to research nuclear technology that can be used to make nuclear weapons. Iran has several research sites, two uranium mines, a research reactor, and uranium processing facilit ...

. Initially, the idea was to bring together as many countries as possible from the Abrahamic Accords, in order to strengthen and deepen ties. This is a few days after the Prime Minister of Israel, Naftali Bennett, also visited Egypt. The Jordanian foreign minister was also offered to join the conference, but he held a series of meetings in Kuwait at the time.

Summit

The foreign ministers of

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

and the

, and the

United States Secretary of State The United States secretary of state is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The office holder is one of the highest ranking members of the president's Ca ...

, met at

in the

Negev The Negev or Negeb (; he, הַנֶּגֶב, hanNegév; ar, ٱلنَّقَب, an-Naqab) is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The region's largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba (pop. ), in the north. At its southe ...

, and decided to hold regular meetings about regional security and commit to further expanding economic and diplomatic cooperation. The six foreign ministers who participated in the summit decided to set up a number of joint working groups. The first to discuss national security and the war on terror and other working groups will be education, health, energy, tourism, food and water. In addition, the six foreign ministers agreed that each annual (or semi-annual) meeting would convene in a different desert city, to symbolize the issue common to all relevant countries: the need to improve water supply, desert tourism, book settlement localization and food security concerns. Topics raised included wheat prices, the Western Sahara question,

piracy in the Red Sea Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

, and dealing with launching UAVs and long-range missiles, in addition raising opposition to the

JCPOA The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA; fa, برنامه جامع اقدام مشترک , barnāmeye jāme'e eqdāme moshtarak (, ''BARJAM'')), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal or Iran deal, is an agreement on the Iranian nuclear ...

nuclear deal with Iran and resisting its proxies. United States Secretary of State

said that the meeting "could expand the potential for peace and conflict resolution across the region." He also said that he supported a two-state solution for Palestine and criticized the construction of Israeli settlements on disputed territory as well as Palestinian payments to the families of terrorists. Arab government attendees also said that Israel "must make progress on implementing a two-state solution for the Palestinians with East Jerusalem as its capital." During the summit, an attack took place in

Hadera Hadera ( he, חֲדֵרָה ) is a city located in the Haifa District of Israel, in the northern Sharon region, approximately 45 kilometers (28 miles) from the major cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa. The city is located along 7 km (5&nbs ...

in which two police officers were shot by a pair of Israeli Arabs who had sworn allegiance to

ISIS Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingd ...

. All summit participants

unanimously Unanimity is agreement by all people in a given situation. Groups may consider unanimous decisions as a sign of social, political or procedural agreement, solidarity, and unity. Unanimity may be assumed explicitly after a unanimous vote or impl ...

condemned the attack.

References

{{United Arab Emirates–United States relations 2022 in international relations March 2022 events in Israel Conferences in Israel Arab–Israeli alliance against Iran Abraham Accords Naftali Bennett Bahrain–Egypt relations Bahrain–Israel relations Bahrain–Morocco relations Bahrain–United Arab Emirates relations Bahrain–United States relations Egypt–Israel relations Egypt–Morocco relations Egypt–United Arab Emirates relations Egypt–United States relations Israel–Morocco relations Israel–United Arab Emirates relations Israel–United States relations Morocco–United Arab Emirates relations Morocco–United States relations United Arab Emirates–United States relations