ByLAHAV HARKOV

Israel is on the way to making peace with four more countries in the region, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday.

“I brought four peace agreements, and there are another four on the way,” he said in an interview with Ynet. “I talked about one of them yesterday.”

“One of the leaders in the region” had called him on Monday night, and they spoke for 45 minutes, he said.

Netanyahu rebuffed accusations that he did not attend a planned Likud event in Ashkelon on Monday night because of the threat of rocket fire from Gaza. Rather, he was speaking to the regional leader, and since he does not have good cellphone reception in his armored car, he would not have been able to conduct the call on the way to Ashkelon, he said.

“I don’t want there to be [rocket] launches because of me and because of a political event, but that was not the reason,” Netanyahu said. “We were significantly late… I will visit Ashkelon, and we will take care of their security.”

Over the past year, Israel normalized relations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. Several countries are thought to be considering following suit, including Niger, Mauritania, Indonesia and others.

Ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia have grown closer in recent years. Netanyahu met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in November, and they considered meeting in Abu Dhabi last week. However, Netanyahu’s trip to the UAE was delayed due to a diplomatic imbroglio between Israel and Jordan.