Abraham Accords countries hold first official meeting since Oct. 7 attacks

Ten blocks away from the United Nations General Assembly​, U.S. diplomats quietly kickstarted the expansion of the Abraham Accords from the 43rd floor of a midtown Manhattan office tower. Ten blocks away from the United Nations General Assembly, U.S. diplomats quietly kickstarted the expansion of the Abraham Accords from the 43rd floor of a midtown Manhattan office tower. On Thursday morning, State Department officials participated in the first official meeting of the Abraham Accords countries — the United States, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco — since Oct. 7, 2023, when the Hamas attacks on Israel derailed the expansion of the Accords to more countries in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

The Abraham Accords countries were joined Thursday for the first time by officials from Kazakhstan, which expressed an interest in joining the Accords last year. The U.S. delegation was led by a senior State Department official, Under Secretary of Political Affairs Allison Hooker. "Nearly three years after October 7, the Abraham Accords countries are back together," Hooker said, adding that President Trump brokered the historic agreements during his first term, and Thursday was an important signifier that the accords are "moving forward again." The meeting was hosted by the N7 Foundation, a U.S.-based organization that has convened multilateral meetings of the Abraham Accords countries since 2021.