The United States is planning to hold a meeting with Israel and Arab countries that recognize it, as Washington pushes the incoming government of Benjamin Netanyahu to show restraint.
Netanyahu is set to take office with the most right-wing government in Israel's history including figures from the extreme fringes who staunchly back expanding settlements in Palestinian areas.
A senior U.S. official said the U.S. plans a meeting "probably in the first quarter" of 2023 of foreign ministers from the so-called Negev summit in March.
The meeting, with Israel's then centrist government, brought to the Israeli desert the foreign minister of Egypt, the first Arab state to make peace with Israel, and his counterparts from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, which normalized relations in 2020 in the so-called Abraham accords.
The accords, also hailed by then U.S. President Donald Trump as a signature achievement, are "near and dear to the heart of Prime Minister Netanyahu and so I imagine that he wants to continue to see that move forward," the U.S. official said on condition of anonymity.
"I think Israel has to factor that in," the official said.
"Depending on some of the things that Israel does, that may make it harder or easier for these countries to actually engage and participate and move forward, never mind bringing new countries into the process."
The United Arab Emirates jumpstarted the Abraham accords in return for a promise by Netanyahu's then government not to move ahead with the annexation of the West Bank, a step that had the blessing of the Trump administration.
President Joe Biden's administration has warned that it opposes annexation and the expansion of settlements and has backed the creation of a Palestinian state while stopping short of any major diplomatic drive toward a goal seen as having little chance of success.
