Newsletter
Newsletter Support JNS

Blinken says Abraham Accords are ‘something we want to build on’

Testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the Biden administration’s foreign-policy agenda, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged the work of his predecessor, Mike Pompeo.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers remarks to the media at the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 26, 2021. Credit: U.S. State Department Photo by Ron Przysucha.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers remarks to the media at the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 26, 2021. Credit: U.S. State Department Photo by Ron Przysucha.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday complimented the Trump administration for the Abraham Accords that normalized relations with Israel and several Gulf states and Muslim nations.

Blinken was testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the Biden administration’s foreign-policy agenda when U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) asked him what he thinks his predecessor, Mike Pompeo, did correctly.

In his response, Blinken referenced technological advances and the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords.

“Trying to help bring the State Department into the 21st century, the use of technology and empowering some of our people with technology, [which is] something we really want to follow through,” he said. “And as we were talking about earlier, I think the initiatives that led to steps by countries to normalize relations with Israel were a very good thing and something we want to build on.”

The U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain were signed on Sept. 15 in Washington, D.C.

Sudan and Morocco followed suit just months afterwards.

That legal threshold “requires enough support to have some meaningful impact on the terrorist organization’s ability to achieve its goals,” a dissenting Fourth Circuit judge wrote. “Selling a hot dog to a terrorist would not count.”
Israel’s foreign minister called it a historic day for ties between the two countries and an important day for the capital.
“I used to worry because they were black Jews, and I was more concerned that they were black,” Andrea Martin told JNS of her sons. “I never thought when I sent my kids away to college that Max would have to worry about hot coffee being poured on him in a library.”
“I am proud to lead a tremendous revolution in settlement in Judea and Samaria and to effectively kill the idea of a Palestinian state,” Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told JNS.