Gudrun Harrer in conversation with Barak Ravid, Ebtesam El-Ketbi,
Abdulaziz Sager
FROM HOPE TO UNCERTAINTY - FIVE YEARS AFTER THE SIGNING
OF THE ABRAHAM ACCORDS BETWEEN ISRAEL AND FOUR ARAB
STATES
Five years ago, in September 2020, the United Arab Emirates and
Bahrain signed the Abraham Accords, the agreement that
established normalization of diplomatic relations with Israel.
They were later joined by Morocco and Sudan (the latter never
implementing the agreement). The cultural, economic and security
cooperation between the Abraham Accord signatories progressed,
and in 2023 the US administration of President Joe Biden
increased efforts to complete the project of his predecessor
Donald Trump by bringing Saudi Arabia into the pact.
The 7th October 2023 brutal Hamas attack on Israel and the
subsequent massive Israeli military offensive against the Gaza
Strip with its heavy toll on innocent Palestinian civilians
completely changed the political environment of Israeli Arab
cooperation. The Abraham Accords have proved resilient but are in
difficult waters, even more so since Israel recently, on
September 9th, attacked a target in Qatar – which is not a member
of Abraham Accords, but, together with the US and Egypt, a
mediator between Hamas und Israel. The Unites Arab Emirates drew
a “red line” over a possible annexation of the West Bank by
Israel. The escalation not only questions Arab Israeli relations
and, in concrete terms, the future of the Abraham Accords. Also
the foundation of trust between the United States and its
reliable Arab partners on the Gulf seemed to be shaken.
A panel of distinguished experts from the region will address the
question if the Abraham Accords are in acute danger or already a
stable part of a new irreversible security architecture in the
Middle East and North Africa. If this is the case, can they be
not only maintained but expanded, geographically and
thematically? What are the requirements for the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia to join? Is Israel – which seems to have switched from
policies of national security to the goal of regional dominance –
still interested in the development of the Accords? Is the
European Union, as it seems, really confined to a role of passive
onlooker although directly affected by all events in the MENA
region?
Barak Ravid, Israeli journalist who serves as a
political analyst for CNN and reporter for Axios and Channel 12
News (online)
Ebtesam El-Ketbi, political scientist who
founded and presides over The Emirates Policy Center think tank
Abdulaziz Sager, Founder and Chair of the Gulf
Research Center, a global think tank based in Saudi Arabia,
expert on Gulf politics and strategic issues, author and editor
of numerous publications, frequent contributor to major
international media channels such as Al Arabiya, the BBC, CNN,
and France 24
Gudrun Harrer, Senior Editor, Der Standard;
Lecturer in Modern History and Politics of the Middle East at the
University of Vienna and the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna
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