A senior U.S. official discussed several aspects of the Abraham Accords and took questions regarding the agreement itself, and issues such as the Temple Mount, Judea/Samaria annexation, and a possible sale of stealth jets the UAE.
The official said: "The Emiratis and the Israelis will be signing their own document, as will as the Bahrainis and the Israelis will be signing their own document. And then there’s also going to be something that everybody is signing. Tomorrow there will be bilateral meetings between the three countries that are visiting and the U.S., followed by the event itself, and then a lunch between the entire group from the White House.
"I think you might find tomorrow that the UAE document is going to be a much longer document than the Bahrain document. So the UAE - we were able to finish that deal on August 13th. And then, obviously, it’s now September 15th, as opposed to the Bahraini agreement, which, you know, was obviously a much quicker negotiation.
"It’s still an extremely substantive document that we’ll get through what our intentions are, but it will be a much shorter document. And that’s honestly just a function of the time and not the willingness of the party.
"There's going to be the Abraham Accord that's going to be signed. And then there will be the bilateral with the U.S. as witness or observer being signed.
"So there's something that everyone will be signing that I would think of as the Abraham Accords. And then the actual bilateral agreements, without getting too far into what those actually are going to say."
"As it relates to Saudi, I think it’s sort of well-understood that Bahrain has a very close relationship with them, but beyond that, I don’t want to get into specific conversations that we had with the Saudis, although obviously we did travel there immediately after being in Bahrain.
"And then as it relates to the UAE -- I mean, so they are a really, really impressive people, and their leadership is extraordinarily close-knit. You know, so the Crown Prince’s brother and foreign minister of the country is going to be in attendance. And honestly, from the get-go, that was who they actually suggested. And it’s their delegation, so it’s their right to choose who they’d like, and it’s our honor to host the foreign minister. So we’re excited to have him. And Bahrain is sending the same level of delegation."
The official said a "large number" of senior Democrats were invited, and some are expected to attend.
"Like issues of the Temple Mount are not things that would make it into a document like this. But as relates to specifics, we do get into some, as it relates to substantive issues of bilateral nature, specifically in the UAE document. The Bahraini document is a little bit less, but it's more high level of what ultimately is going to happen.
On annexation: "The joint statement was as clear as we intend to get into it. And I don’t expect it to come up tomorrow in that Israel has agreed to suspend it as we are working through the opportunities that are at hand -- specifically normalization or establishment of diplomatic relations, both with UAE and Bahrain, but also with additional countries that we're talking with. And this four-year number -- I've heard a bunch of different numbers being thrown out, and I don’t know where it's coming from."
On the F-35: "I think Jared has been pretty forthright that it's something that's under consideration, and obviously Israel’s security will be not put in any way at risk. And I think of it as a logical equation where if it were to go forward, it meant that Israel’s security was not put in harm, and therefore it's fine. And if Israel’s security could further be put in harm, it wouldn’t go forward. Either way, it doesn’t so much matter because it would only be done if Israel’s security wasn’t put at risk."