US Secretary of State Antony Blinken touched down in Israel on Sunday ahead of a meeting with top envoys from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Morocco and Egypt.
In Jerusalem, Blinken first met with his Israeli counterpart Yair Lapid, who is also set to take part in the high-level talks later in the day.
The US official's trip to the region is focussed on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but other topics including Iran's "destabilizing activities" and Israeli-Palestinian relations are also on the agenda, according to the US State Department.
As well as Israel, Blinken is also set to visit the occupied West Bank, Morocco and Algeria by Wednesday.
Sunday's six-nation talks, which are being hailed as "historic" by Israel, are to be held in the southern Israeli desert village Sde Boker, regarded as symbolic of the Zionist pioneer spirit. The graves of Israel's founder and first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, and his wife Paula, are located there.
Meetings and statements are scheduled for Monday.
In September 2020 Israel signed agreements officially normalizing diplomatic relations with Bahrain and the UAE in Washington despite the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The rapprochement was mainly driven by economic concerns, but also to form an alliance against Iran.
Previously, only two Arab states, Egypt and Jordan, had maintained diplomatic relations with Israel.
