Two American officials reveal to “The Times of Israel” the names of two Muslim countries that were close to normalization with Israel

“The Times of Israel” quoted US officials as saying that the administration of the outgoing president, Donald Trump, was close to reaching a normalization agreement between Israel and Mauritania and Indonesia.

The two officials believed that the Trump administration was only weeks away from striking the deal with Mauritania, as the northwestern African country was identified by Trump’s peace team, led by the White House chief adviser, Jared Kushner, and the special envoy, Avi Berkovitch, as a potential candidate to follow suit. The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco are in the process of normalization with the Jewish state, given the relations it had with Israel in the past.

The two officials said that Indonesia was the next possible candidate to join the so-called “Abraham Accords,” and that an agreement could have been signed had Trump lasted a month or two more in office.

It is worth noting that Mauritania became the third member state of the Arab League to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel in 1999, but it broke off relations after 10 years, against the backdrop of the 2008-2009 Gaza war, while the Mauritanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement, after the UAE’s normalization with Israel In it, she indicated that she trusts “the wisdom and sound judgment of Abu Dhabi” in signing the agreement.

Source: “The Times of Israel”