2023-10-10 16:59:00
(CNN Spanish) — Was the first peace agreement signed in the Middle East mediated by the United States in more than two decades, and was presented as the great achievement of the government of former President Donald Trump in foreign policy.
The so-called “Abraham Accords” (for him biblical prophet which is central to the Muslim, Jewish and Christian faiths) achieved in September 2020 between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, in fact opened the doors to the normalization of relations between these countries.
“These agreements will serve as the basis for general peace throughout the region, something that no one thought possible, especially in these times. These agreements demonstrate that the nations of the region are freeing themselves from the failed approaches of the past. Today’s signing puts history on a new path and very soon there will be other countries that will follow these great leaders,” said Trump.
Certainly, Morocco y Sudan They later joined the firm, and the latest peace agreement in the Middle East mediated by the United States was signed by Israel and Jordan in 1994, during the presidency of Bill Clinton.
But now, in the midst of a new war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, the effectiveness and real scope of the pact has been called into question.
This you should know regarding the “Abraham Accords.”
Background
The Arab states of the Middle East did not recognize Israel’s independence in 1948, and in the following decades a series of wars were fought in the region that ended in Israeli victories. The most forceful was in 1967, when the country occupied the territories of Gaza, the West Bank, the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights.
But following the Yom Kippur War in 1973, Egypt sought to establish a dialogue with Israel to end decades of wars. And in 1979, it finally became the first Arab country to recognize Israel, in exchange for which it regained the Sinai Peninsula.
Egypt’s decision did not mean, however, a change in the region, and to this day the vast majority of Arab states (as well as a large part of non-Arab states with a Muslim majority) do not recognize the State of Israel. . Only Jordan had come close in 1994.
But in practice, Israel has maintained covert relationships with many of these countries, especially in the Persian Gulf.
In 2015, Israel Opened a diplomatic mission in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, and in 2020 the country was guest to the World Expo in Dubai.
What did the Arab countries that signed the agreement get?
In principle, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain benefited from greater rapprochement with the United States, especially within the Trump administration, by normalizing their relations with Israel, a historical and key ally of Washington in the region.
This is key for the purchase of weapons, such as F-35 fighters wanted by the United Arab Emirates, or even the Israeli missile defense system Iron Dome.
But cooperation might transcend these areas and reach areas such as economy, health, tourism and more.
What did Israel get?
The main triumph for Israel is political: managed to get four other Arab and Muslim countries to recognize it as an independent state, consolidating its position within the Middle East and opening the door to future normalization.
At the same time, for then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (who left office in 2021 and returned in 2022), it meant an opportunity to divert the attention to their corruption trials and the strong impact, at that time, of the covid-19 pandemic.
What did it mean for the Palestinians?
The situation of the Palestinians has been at the center of the conflict between Israel and the Arab countries since its beginning, and in 2002 this was endorsed in a Saudi-led peace initiative that called for an end to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians as a condition for normalizing relations.
Now, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco have decided to detach themselves from that premise by advancing the normalization of relations with Israel while that conflict stagnates (and, now, even seems to escalate).
The Palestinians, in fact, were not consulted, and following the initial signing they accused Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates of betraying them, Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa mosque, the third most sacred site for Islam.
Not even the Arab League, an organization of Arab states in the Middle East and the Maghreb that has historically defended the Palestinian cause, is pronounced once morest the Abraham Accords.
In fact, at the beginning of 2020, months before the “Abraham Accords”, President Trump presented a controversial peace plan for the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians that had already provoked the anger of the Arab world.
According to is plan that Trump presented alongside NetanyahuIsrael would annex all settlements it maintains in the West Bank, part of the territory earmarked for the formation of the state of Palestine in the 1947 UN partition, and the Palestinians would receive additional territories south of Gaza in return.
The Palestinians do it they rejectedand the plan has not prospered, but its presentation became the prelude and context for the later “Abraham Accords.”
In this regard, the United Arab Emirates negotiated before signingr the suspension of Israeli annexation of territories in the West Bank, But it was unclear how long this suspension would last and no specific rejection of those plans was included.
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