US President Donald Trump on Wednesday gave national security awards to several top advisers for their role in helping broker agreements aimed at normalizing relations between Israel and four countries in the Arab world, Reuters reported.
Trump awarded the National Security Medal to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, national security adviser Robert O’Brien, senior adviser Jared Kushner, Middle East envoy Avi Berkowitz, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and the US Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, John Rakolta.
“Thanks to the efforts of these individuals, the region will never be the same as it finally moves beyond the conflicts of the past,” the White House said in a statement.
Israel has recently signed deals with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco as part of what the Abraham Accords.
The last such pact was signed with Morocco on Tuesday, when a joint American-Israeli delegation landed in Rabat to formalize the normalization agreement.
Senior US officials are hoping to seal one more agreement before Trump’s term expires on January 20, noted Reuters.
Trump has predicted on several occasions that Saudi Arabia would be one of the countries to forge ties with Israel.
Saudi officials have repeatedly stressed that while the country backs full normalization with Israel, a peace deal with the Palestinian Authority that results in a Palestinian state must come first.