; and (8) efforts to deepen and expand the Abraham Accords, the Negev Forum, and future regional organizations can reduce the likelihood of conflict, improve ties between Israel and neighboring countries, and advance the goal of achieving lasting peace in the Middle East, which serves the longstanding goal of United States policy which has been to support a comprehensive and sustainable peace that includes mutual recognition, dignity, and peaceful neighborly relations between Israelis and Palestinians towards two states for two peoples. 5. Statement of policy It is the policy of the United States— (1) to strengthen and expand the Abraham Accords and the Negev Forum within the Middle East and North Africa and beyond; (2) to institutionalize regional integration as a key pillar of policies of the United States with respect to the Middle East and North Africa; (3) to maintain the leadership of and facilitation by the United States with respect to integration efforts in the Middle East and North Africa; (4) to facilitate efforts to normalize relations formally between Israel and neighboring Arab and Muslim-majority countries to achieve shared regional integration, cooperation, and development objectives, consistent with the national security, economic, and development interests of the United States; (5) to engage in active diplomacy to expand the number of participants in formal normalization frameworks, as well as in non-formal integration structures in the Middle East and North Africa; (6) to strengthen collective security by continuing and expanding efforts on regional defense cooperation, as required by strategic interests of the United States; (7) to develop and implement an integrated regional security strategy in the Middle East and North Africa that— (A) recognizes the shared threat posed by the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies and violent extremism and terrorism; (B) ensures sufficient United States deterrence in the region; (C) builds partner capacity to address shared threats