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Israel hosted a first-of-its-kind summit of Arab foreign ministers over the weekend in what is considered a major sign of changing geopolitical alignments in the Middle East amid regional concerns over Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The foreign ministers from Bahrain, Israel, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates met Sunday for a two-day summit to discuss shared challenges in the region, including Iran, energy, water and food security.

The gathering marks the first time the top diplomats met since the three Arab nations normalized their relations with Israel in 2020 in a series of deals called the Abraham Accords.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken also joined the summit and is expected to discuss Iran, advancing the Abraham accords and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The historic meeting follows regional concerns over a deal between the US and Iran to revive the 2015 nuclear deal. Israel initially muted its criticism of the deal, until Washington proposed to remove Iran’s Revolutionary Guard from its list of terrorist organizations.

Gulf nations, such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia, have also voiced opposition to the nuclear agreement.

Apart from the weekend summit, leaders of Israel, the UAE and Egypt met in the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh to negotiate a regional military alliance and shared air defense. They also discussed rapprochement with Syrian President Bashar Assad, who was recently hosted by UAE, despite opposition from the US.

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