The United States seeks to expand the Abraham Accords
The Abraham Accords are back in the spotlight thanks to the latest announcement by Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy for the Middle East, about the future inclusion of new countries.
The Abraham Accords were sealed in September 2020 under the auspices of Donald Trump's first administration and served to enable various Arab countries, such as the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, to establish diplomatic ties with Israel with a view to pacifying the Middle East and promoting regional development in all areas, confronting nations singled out for belligerent policies and interference in the internal affairs of other states in the region, such as the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Other Arab countries followed suit shortly afterwards, such as Sudan and Morocco. In the latter case, Morocco obtained US support for its Autonomy Plan for Western Sahara as the most feasible option for resolving the Sahrawi dispute. This dynamic led to the conclusion of various agreements between Israel and the Arab countries involved on a range of issues such as politics, economics and trade, defence and new technologies, which were highly beneficial to all parties concerned.
This important trend was viewed very positively by much of the international community, and there was even talk of the inclusion of major players such as Saudi Arabia, the Gulf giant that has always had major differences with the Israeli state.
The latest war in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian extremist group Hamas put a brake on this spiral, but work has continued to calm the waters in a region as complicated as the Middle East with a view to reaching a greater understanding between the Arab world and Israel and, by extension, the West.
Along these lines, Steve Witkoff, a highly influential figure as special envoy for the Middle East in Donald Trump's second administration, said in an interview with the US network CNBC that there will be major announcements about the countries that are going to join the Abraham Accords. ‘One of the president's key objectives is to expand the Abraham Accords,’ Steve Witkoff told CNBC.
Witkoff also noted that he and his team are working in coordination with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the State Department to ‘get more countries to join the Abraham Accords.’
‘We expect normalisation in a number of countries that people would never have imagined, so we are excited about that prospect; it will also serve as a stabiliser in the Middle East,’ Witkoff added, referring to important Arab nations that may take the step of establishing close diplomatic ties with Israel.
Witkoff hinted that announcements about additional countries normalising relations with Israel would come soon, although he did not name the nations expected to join the agreements.
Specifically, on the Middle East and the current conflict with Iran and its nuclear programme, Steve Witkoff said that ‘Iran's enrichment and nuclear weapons activities are red lines for the United States.’ Although he expressed hope for a comprehensive peace agreement with Tehran, he added that ‘we cannot allow Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons’ because ‘this will destabilise the entire region.’