Lapid says Israel will sign more normalisation deals, cannot reveal countries

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said on Tuesday that Israel was negotiating new normalisation agreements with countries that currently cannot be revealed.

It was unclear whether Lapid was referring to Arab countries which could follow in the footsteps of the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco, which all established ties with Israel last year.

He was speaking at the general assembly of The Jewish Federations of North America.

The foreign minister added that these contacts are taking place with the help of "the United States and our friends in Bahrain, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates, in which embassies have recently opened."

Lapid added that peace with Palestinians was "still on the agenda."

Dubbed the Abraham Accords, Israel's normalisation deals with four Arab countries were slammed by Palestinians as a betrayal of their cause, rewarding Israel while it continued to occupy the West Bank and besiege the Gaza Strip.

Opinion polls showed that the overwhelming majority of respondents in the Arab world were opposed to them.

Israel already signed peace deals with Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994.