Abraham Accords: Palestine issue should be addressed for a peaceful Middle East

• Main Author: Polen Bayrak
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cappadocia University 2021-06-01
• Series: Cappadocia Journal of Area Studies
• Subjects: peace deal; UAE-Israel; deal of the century; Trump administration; Middle East
• Online Access: https://cjas.kapadokya.edu.tr/index.php/cjas/article/view/38

Decades of tensions in the Middle East have left many regional countries in tatters. The Abraham Accords – a joint declaration of the United States, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates, was signed alongside a peace agreement, although there has never been a state of war or conflict between Israel and the UAE. To achieve full peace and stability in the region, the resolution of the Palestine-Israeli conflict is vital. The United States and Israel have a long history of cooperation in the maintenance of the security of Israel that ensures the protection of US interests to the detriment of other regional powers that may have the potential to become influential in the region, and that ignore Western interests. Geopolitical changes in the Middle East over the last decade have altered the threat perspective of the Arab monarchies. Support for the creation of an independent Palestine has diminished as the issue has started to be seen as a distraction from the real and immediate threats from emerging regional powers. Although the Gulf nations may wish to present themselves as the Arab protector of Palestine, they clarify that “every tub must stand on its own bottom.” The US support of a peaceful environment was a result of the Chinese presence in the region, which the former perceived as a threat to its hegemony. However, long-term peace cannot be achieved without taking into account the Palestinian issue, as the primary conflict. In the same vein, countries such as Iran and Turkey did not welcome the normalization situation between Israel and the Arab states due to the ignorance of the Palestinians’ interests. There are weaknesses of the Accords perhaps due to its impatient timing, and its contradiction with the international community, such as the UN, and its disregard of the two-state solution.