Sharaka
UK Abraham Accords Group Chair Rt. Hon. Dr Liam Fox MP this week emphasised that “the Abraham Accords are like no other peace deal with Israel’s neighbours”, in an article in the the Times of Israel following the group’s first overseas Parliamentary delegation to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Dr Fox said that the delegation, which took place this month, was “keen to see what role there could be for Britain and for us as British parliamentarians, in supporting the friendship between those three countries [Israel, the UAE, and Bahrain] that was encapsulated in the Abraham Accords”.
He wrote: “As one senior Emirati interlocutor told us, the Abraham Accords are not a peace deal like those of Egypt and Jordan: their country was never at war with Israel. That is surely one of the reasons why this is also a much warmer relationship than Israel has ever had with its neighbours. There is no legacy of nationalist anti-Israel fervour, no veterans to appease, and no deep-seated Antisemitism among Emiratis”.
Dr Fox added that “during the visit we were privileged to meet Dubai’s burgeoning Jewish community and hear from them how the Abraham Accords had changed their lives”.
In FCDO Questions in the House of Commons this week, CFI Parliamentary Chairman (Commons) Rt. Hon. Stephen Crabb MP also mentioned the delegation, as one of the participants, and hailed the Abraham Accords, asking the Middle East Minister whether he agrees UK is well placed to encourage other states “to embark on the same journey of peace and friendship with Israel”
In the group’s first ever overseas delegation since it was founded last year, MPs met UAE government ministers and business leaders, UAE Ambassador to the UK H.E. Mansoor Abulhoul, British Ambassador to the UAE H.E. Patrick Moody, as well as visiting the Expo 2020 Dubai and counter-extremism organisation Hedayah.
