The Trump administration was in the process of making deals with Mauritania and Indonesia to be the next Muslim countries to normalize relations with Israel, but ran out of time before the Republican president’s term expired, two US officials said. to the Israeli Times of Israel this week. A deal with Mauritania was the closest to being reached, with US officials believing they were only weeks away from finalizing a deal. The North West African country has been identified by the Trump peace team led by Senior White House Advisor Jared Kushner and Special Envoy Avi Berkowitz as a likely candidate to follow the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco in normalization with the Jewish state, given that it once had relations with Israel. Note that Mauritania only became the third member of the Arab League to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel in 1999, but severed ties 10 years later in the context of the 2008-2009 war in Gaza.
