“I’m very upbeat about the potential for an Abraham Accord with Syria and Lebanon,” the ambassador said.

Israeli ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter said that he believes that Syria and Lebanon could join the Abraham Accords and normalize relations with Israel before Saudi Arabia, in an interview published on the conservative media platform PragerU on Thursday.

“There’s no reason now why we wouldn’t be moving into accommodation with Syria and Lebanon,” he said. “We have dramatically changed the paradigm there. I’m very upbeat about the potential for an Abraham Accord with Syria and Lebanon, and that may actually precede Saudi Arabia.” 

Speaking to the platform’s CEO, Marissa Streit, Leiter added that Saudi Arabia was considering joining the accords “because in 2019, they weren’t very far away. If President Trump had remained in office in 2020, we probably would’ve reached that point – a complete normalization with Saudi Arabia.”

Leiter added that now, Israel and Saudi Arabia are still on the path to normalization, although there are still complications to normalization due to the Gaza war.

Regarding Lebanon’s possibility of normalizing relations, the ambassador said, “Lebanon has the opportunity to ’emerge from its failed state status and reassert itself as a civil society.” Regarding Syria, Leiter said that the US should have been more hesitant in removing sanctions from the country, stating that the US should wait to see what actions Syria takes, mentioning the importance of protecting minorities such as the Druze and Alawites in the country.

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