By Micaela Burrow, DCNF

The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) intelligence division distributed a report to other U.S. government agencies in 2020 warning a Trump-era Middle East peace deal would fuel terrorism on U.S. soil, according to The Intercept.

In 2020, Trump adviser Jared Kushner negotiated an agreement, the Abraham Accords, between Israel, the U.A.E. and Bahrain, which the administration claimed would normalize relations between formerly hostile Middle Eastern nations and bring peace to the Israeli-Arab conflict. DHS apparently disagreed, according to the report, which the Intercept obtained through a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request.

DHS argued in the October 2020 report that the Abraham Accords’ failure to resolve Israel’s occupation of Palestine could inspire U.S.-based terrorist foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) to conduct violence. The three-page document cited an incident at a Florida military base in 2019 when a Saudi officer attacked a classroom due to former President Trump’s decision to relocate the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

President @realDonaldTrump: Our two great friends, Israel and the Kingdom of Morocco, have agreed to full diplomatic relations – a massive breakthrough for peace in the Middle East! https://t.co/75lrBX3SIv pic.twitter.com/u1ApMH0jKX

— Department of State (@StateDept) December 25, 2020

 

“We assess that US-based foreign terrorist organization (FTO) supporters’ existing grievances about the US Government’s Middle East foreign policy, such as viewing the United States as responsible for Israeli actions, will almost certainly be exacerbated by Israel’s normalization of relations with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates,” the document stated. It noted a lack of “specific and credible reporting” of FTOs preparing to retaliate.

The report became public just before President Joe Biden’s planned July trip to Israel, Palestine and Saudi Arabia where he will focus on “regional economic and security cooperation.”

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan spoke with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman in October regarding Saudi Arabia’s potential accession to the Abraham Accords. President Biden had denounced Saudi Arabia as a ‘pariah’ in 2019.

Israeli Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid hinted that “the rumors about talks regarding Saudi Arabia are not unfounded,” Axios reported on June 15. “We want a peace agreement with Saudi Arabia,” he said.

“This is not a breakthrough, but another stage in the tightening relationship between the two countries,” Michal Yaari, an expert on the Arabian Gulf at Ben Gurion-University of the Negev and the Open University in the United Kingdom, told Jewish News Service.

The DHS did not respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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