Congressional Support
Portman, Cardin, Booker and Young Urge More Countries to Engage with Israel Following Historic Face-to-Face Meetings with UAE
October 13, 2021
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senators Rob Portman (R-OH), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Todd Young (R-IN), all members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement on Wednesday’s meeting between the foreign ministers of Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at the U.S. Department of State. The senators are the lead sponsors of S. 1061, the Israel Relations Normalization Act of 2021, which has 69 sponsors/cosponsors.
“Today, we are witnessing an historic milestone as Secretary Blinken hosts Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan to discuss progress made since the signing of the Abraham Accords last year, future opportunities for collaboration, and bilateral issues including regional security and stability. This joint meeting with the UAE and Israel would have been impossible prior to the signing of the Abraham Accords,” the senators said.
“As the lead authors of the Israel Relations Normalization Act of 2021, we hope to continue to build on the success of the Abraham Accords and expand normalization agreements. The countries that signed the Abraham Accords have demonstrated global leadership and embraced a new path for the future of their nations. Progress on economic, political and security cooperation can only be made through meaningful and face-to-face engagements, and we hope to see many more of these meetings in the future.
“We were also pleased to see the introduction of the House version of the Israel Relations Normalization Act and we join our nearly 70 Democratic and Republican co-sponsors in the Senate in hoping to see it passed soon and signed into law,” they added.