According to a new report in Israel Hayom, Tunisia and Israel are engaged in diplomatic discussions about a possible rapprochement, but the move has run into difficulties both from the opposition in the North African country and from neighboring Algeria, which is trying to thwart the conciliatory effort.
A political source told the newspaper that: "expanding the circle of countries in the region with which we have ties is our consistent goal, but reports that Algeria continue demonstrating a hostile attitude towards Israel."
In October of last year, Minister of Regional Cooperation Esawi Frej (Meretz) said in an interview that Qatar, Tunisia, Oman and Malaysia may join the Abraham Accords.
Speaking with the Emirati website Erem News and quoted by i24NEWS, Frej said, “Every Arab country in the Middle East, even the hostile countries, we have direct and indirect relations with them. I see on the far horizon that all the countries of the Middle East will be within a union.”
Tunisia reiterated last December that it is not interested in establishing diplomatic relations with Israel and its position will not be affected by any international changes.
While Oman and Israel do not have diplomatic relations, the two countries have had some contacts in recent years. In October of 2018, then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a surprise visit to Oman, where he met with Sultan Qaboos bin Said, who has since passed away.
Despite this, the Foreign Minister of Oman recently said that his country will not be the next in line to sign a normalization agreement with Israel.
Israel also does not have ties with Malaysia, where former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has a lengthy history of statements against Israel and Jewish people.