Morocco cites 'uncomfortable diplomatic relations' for postponement as no new date announced; Saudi Arabia blocks Israeli diplomat's entry in Paris event featuring crown prince
Morocco officially announced on Friday that the second Negev Forum summit, which includes Israel, the United States, and several Arab countries, will not take place this summer as planned.
According to the Moroccan Foreign Ministry, the conference was canceled due to “uncomfortable diplomatic relations.”
This follows a recent escalation in the West Bank and a series of pronouncements by Israel over the expansion of housing construction in the settlements.
Senior U.S. officials told Israel that they are concerned that Morocco may cancel the summit, which has been postponed multiple times due to tensions between Israel and Palestinians in the West Bank.
The meeting was initially planned for March but faced multiple delays until it was eventually scheduled for the end of June. Following that, Morocco announced another postponement citing technical reasons, and today’s announcement raises the possibility that the meeting might not take place at all, as Morocco has not committed to setting a new date.
An Israeli source told Haaretz that the meeting’s occurrence would be influenced by the political and security landscape, with a particular emphasis on the Palestinian arena.
The Negev Forum, initiated by former Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, was founded during the previous government. The inaugural ministerial meeting was held in March 2022 at Sde Boker and was attended by the United States, Israel, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt. Israel and the U.S. government have recently expressed a desire to broaden the forum’s scope by adding one or two African countries.
Furthermore, Saudi Arabia barred this week the entry of an Israeli diplomat to an event in Paris where Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman delivered a speech, despite the diplomat receiving an invitation.
Israel was caught off guard by this move and is now exploring the possibility that the Saudis changed their stance due to Israel’s recent decision to expand settlement construction and the IDF’s operation in Jenin, which occurred just hours before the event and resulted in the deaths of seven Palestinians.
The incident, initially reported by Channel Kan News, took place on Monday during an event where bin Salman launched a campaign for hosting Expo 2030 in Saudi Arabia. This event is expected to attract significant investments and many tourists. The attendance of the Israeli diplomat was meant to convey a public message that Israel supports Saudi Arabia’s efforts in hosting the international exhibition as part of the ongoing normalization of relations between the two countries.
This marks the second failure in recent weeks to advance a public display of Israeli-Saudi relations. Similarly, the efforts to establish direct flights between the two countries during the upcoming Hajj season did not yield any breakthrough, as acknowledged by Tzachi Hanegbi, the head of Israel’s National Security Council, this week.
A senior Israeli official told Haaretz that “the Saudis expressed their willingness, but they did not demonstrate the enthusiasm required to make it truly happen.” He further emphasized that “we cannot separate this from the current political events and the security situation.”