Abraham Accords

Before 2020, many Arab governments had treated progress on Palestinian negotiating demands as a precondition for improved relations with Israel. Egypt and Jordan were the principal exceptions, having concluded peace treaties with Israel in 1979 and 1994 respectively.[1][4] The Abraham Accords changed that decades-old diplomatic pattern.

Before the public announcement, Israel and the UAE had developed substantial security cooperation, under-the-radar trade, and increasingly visible official contacts. Contemporary analysis attributed their convergence partly to shared opposition to Iran and its regional proxies, and partly to opposition to political Islamist movements in the post-Arab Spring regional order.[5] The UAE Ministry of Tolerance officially recognized the country's local Jewish population in February 2019, and the Jewish community opened a public Twitter account in May 2020.[6]

A proximate trigger described in contemporary analysis was Israel's proposed application of sovereignty to portions of the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria — under the U.S. Vision for Peace. UAE Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba published a Hebrew-language op-ed titled "It's Either Normalization or Annexation," after which reported outreach by Jared Kushner helped produce an arrangement under which Israel suspended the plans while normalization proceeded.[7][5] The Accords developed under Kushner's direction, although analysis of the negotiations noted that the precise extent of the American role remained unclear.[8][5]

A Sapir Journal analysis presents opposition to Iran's nuclear program, regional expansion, and proxy networks as a major factor in the preceding rapprochement. It argues that the Accords sought to integrate Israel more deeply into the Middle East and create common interests that would reduce the likelihood of renewed conflict.[9]

On August 13, 2020, the United States, Israel, and the UAE announced that Israel and the UAE had agreed to full normalization. President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed participated in the announcement, which stated that Israel would suspend plans to declare sovereignty over areas identified in the U.S. Vision for Peace.[7]

The formal White House ceremony followed on September 15, 2020.[10] Bahraini, Emirati, Israeli, and U.S. officials signed the umbrella Abraham Accords Declaration, which calls for peace based on mutual understanding, coexistence, human dignity, freedom, and religious freedom. It encourages interfaith and intercultural dialogue, cooperation in science, art, medicine, and commerce, efforts to end radicalization and conflict, and expanded friendly relations between Israel and its neighbors.[3]

The Israel–UAE instrument, titled the Treaty of Peace, Diplomatic Relations and Full Normalization between the United Arab Emirates and the State of Israel, was signed by Netanyahu and UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, with Trump as witness. It provides for resident ambassadors and embassies, peaceful dispute resolution, ratification, and registration with the UN secretary-general under Article 102 of the UN Charter.[11] The treaty describes Arab and Jewish peoples as descendants of Abraham and links that heritage to coexistence among Muslims, Jews, Christians, and people of all faiths.[11]

The Israel–Bahrain document, titled the Declaration of Peace, Cooperation, and Constructive Diplomatic and Friendly Relations, records agreement to establish full diplomatic relations, promote security, reject threats and force, and advance coexistence. It also sets an agenda for negotiations on investment, tourism, direct flights, security, technology, healthcare, culture, and reciprocal embassies.[12] The ceremony presented the agreements as opening greater access for Muslims to visit historic sites in Israel and Jerusalem, including the al-Aqsa Mosque.[4]

The UAE treaty commits the parties to cooperation in finance and investment, aviation, visas, trade, healthcare, science, technology, tourism, culture, energy, education, agriculture, food security, water, telecommunications, and other fields. It also calls for people-to-people programs, interfaith dialogue, academic exchanges, and joint efforts against extremism and terrorism.[11] The treaty describes normalization as helping "transform the Middle East by spurring economic growth, enhancing technological innovation and forging closer people-to-people relations."[11]

The Bahrain declaration identified investment, tourism, direct flights, security, telecommunications, technology, energy, healthcare, culture, the environment, and reciprocal embassies as priorities.[12] Approximately one month later, Bahrain and Israel signed a joint declaration establishing diplomatic relations and several memoranda of understanding; Bahrain's foreign minister made the first official Bahraini visit to Israel in November 2020.[13]

Morocco's December 22, 2020 joint declaration with Israel and the United States called for the immediate resumption of full official contacts, direct flights, expanded economic and technical cooperation, and the reopening of liaison offices in Rabat and Tel Aviv.[14] Morocco and Israel had maintained ties during the 1990s, so the arrangement was described as a renewal and upgrading of earlier relations rather than an entirely new relationship.[15][13]

Sudan announced its entry into the normalization process in October 2020, and a declaration was signed in Khartoum on January 6, 2021, in the presence of the U.S. secretary of the treasury.[13] Sudan later repealed its 1958 law banning contacts with Israel and reached an undisclosed security-related memorandum of understanding with an Israeli delegation. Its broader normalization process nevertheless stalled, and sources differ over whether Sudan should be classified as a fully normalized Abraham Accords partner.[2][13]

The Trump administration connected security, diplomatic, or economic incentives to most of the normalization arrangements.[1] For the UAE, it considered advanced drone sales and possibly F-35 aircraft, prompting concern about preserving Israel's qualitative military edge; Israeli officials, including Netanyahu, opposed the proposed sales.[5] For Morocco, the United States recognized Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara and supported Morocco's autonomy proposal, a politically and internationally contested policy change recorded alongside the normalization terms.[14] For Sudan, the United States removed the country from its state-sponsors-of-terrorism list, while Sudan agreed to pay $335 million to American victims of terrorism.[16]

The UAE announcement also proposed a Strategic Agenda for the Middle East to expand diplomatic, trade, and security cooperation.[7] The United States and Israel later sought to bring additional Arab and Muslim-majority countries into the framework, while the Biden administration said further normalization efforts should preserve the viability of a negotiated two-state solution.[1]

Israel and the UAE implemented normalization most rapidly. Regularly scheduled flights began on November 26, 2020; the UAE Embassy in Israel was inaugurated on July 14, 2021; and Israel's first ambassador to the UAE, Amir Hayek, presented his credentials on November 15, 2021.[10] Sources estimated that between 130,000 and 150,000 Israelis visited the UAE during the first year.[17][18] Reporting also described a developing kosher-food industry in Dubai and a major UAE investment in Israeli offshore natural-gas extraction.[19]

Bahrain's first ambassador to Israel arrived in September 2021, Israel opened its embassy in Manama, and Gulf Air launched direct flights.[13] Four thousand Israelis reportedly visited Bahrain in 2021, and Israel and Bahrain signed a security agreement in February 2022.[18][15]

Morocco and Israel exchanged envoys and launched direct commercial flights. First-year bilateral trade reportedly rose 84% to $42 million, and more than 15,000 Israelis traveled to Morocco during the Passover period covered by the reporting.[1][18] Israel and Morocco signed a defense memorandum of understanding in November 2021, described as the first such agreement between Israel and an Arab state.[15]

Sudan's implementation was the least developed. The process went on hold after the Sudanese military seized power in October 2021.[1]

During the first six months of 2021, reported Israel–UAE trade reached $613.9 million, approximately 1,100% above the comparable pre-normalization period; first-quarter 2022 trade exceeded $1 billion.[18] An Israeli government account reported that the UAE opened a $10 billion investment fund focused on agritech, energy, water, space, and healthcare.[17]

On January 19, 2022, Israel and the UAE announced a joint $100 million research-and-development fund for public- and private-sector cooperation. They signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement on May 31, 2022, which entered into force on April 1, 2023.[10] The agreement provided for removing tariffs on 96% of products within five years.[18] By the Accords' fifth anniversary, bilateral trade stood at approximately $3.2 billion.[20]

An Israeli government review reported that Israel's trade with other Middle Eastern countries increased by 74% between 2021 and 2022. It also described the Prosperity Green & Blue initiative, under which a Jordanian solar field was intended to supply Israel with 600 megawatts of electricity while an Israeli desalination plant would provide Jordan with 200 million cubic meters of water.[21] Other reported projects included Israeli water advice to Bahrain and cooperation between Israeli and Moroccan aviation industries.[18] Academic research concludes that economic incentives and tourism helped sustain normalization with Morocco and the UAE.[22]

The UAE–Israel diplomatic breakthrough made previously less visible Jewish–Muslim interactions in Dubai more publicly discussable. Research conducted shortly after the May 2021 Israel–Hamas escalation found that Jewish interviewees reported no related verbal or physical antisemitic threats; two said police had approached them to confirm that they felt safe. The study cautioned that its findings were based on a small qualitative sample.[6]

At the time of the research, the UAE Jewish community included a religious school, a Jewish Community Centre, and two functioning synagogues. The highest population estimates across the seven emirates reached approximately 3,000, although not all participated in communal life.[6] The study also identified a nascent discourse of "Abrahamic cousins," "Arab brothers," and a shared Muslim–Jewish Middle Eastern identity, while cautioning that this was not yet an established social reality.[6]

A prominent symbol of the new interfaith architecture was the Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi, a leadership-supported complex containing a synagogue, church, and mosque.[6] Governments also used tourism as cultural diplomacy: academic research highlights Moroccan campaigns connected with Jewish pilgrimage and saint veneration, and the UAE's presentation of moderate Islam as a means of creating a more welcoming environment for Israeli tourists.[23]

Reporting described expanded intelligence cooperation between Israel and Bahrain, arrangements for safe passage of vessels in the Persian Gulf, Israeli drone and anti-drone sales to Bahrain, and Israeli radar deployments in the UAE intended to detect Iranian missile launches. Israel and Morocco also signed an agreement enabling broader intelligence cooperation.[18]

Israel and Bahrain signed a formal security agreement in February 2022.[15] The Negev Summit in March 2022 brought together senior diplomats from Israel, the United States, the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Egypt, who initiated regular regional consultations and working groups.[15] The Congressional Research Service identified deepening security and economic ties as a possible basis for broader cooperation, including air and missile defense.[1]

A Sapir Journal analysis proposed a broader regional code of conduct prohibiting state support for terrorism, respecting territorial integrity, resolving disputes through negotiation, and protecting religious and historical sites; these were the author's proposals, not provisions of the Accords themselves.[9] Concern about Iran and its regional proxies was a prominent strategic factor in the rapprochement preceding normalization.[5][9]

A major structural effect of the Accords was their departure from the decades-old paradigm that linked wider Arab peace with Israel to prior resolution of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.[1] The UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco established direct diplomatic, commercial, and security relationships with Israel without that precondition.

By 2021, Israel had opened embassies in the UAE and Bahrain, and both countries had reciprocated. Israel and Morocco reopened liaison offices that had operated from the mid-1990s until 2000.[1] The agreements also produced direct flights, tourism, investment, scientific cooperation, and new multilateral forums.

As of September 2025, none of the signatories had suspended or withdrawn from the Accords, and quiet engagement continued. Israel–UAE trade was valued at approximately $3.2 billion, although the Gaza war beginning in October 2023 impaired or paused many broader integration initiatives.[20] Flights between Tel Aviv and Dubai and bilateral trade and tourism continued, while public anger over the war strained Morocco–Israel relations without ending them.[24]

Sudan's normalization process remained stalled.[2] Analysts continued to view the Accords as a possible foundation for eventual normalization with Saudi Arabia, but the Gaza war and wider regional instability had paused that effort by the framework's fifth anniversary.[20]

Interpretations of the Accords have centered on their relationship to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Palestinian leaders denounced the agreements as an abandonment of the Palestinian national cause because Arab states had previously treated Palestinian negotiating demands as a precondition for improved relations with Israel.[1] Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat reportedly said Palestinians had been stabbed in the back by the UAE announcement.[5] The UAE treaty committed the parties to work toward a negotiated Israeli–Palestinian solution, but the agreements did not establish terms for resolving the conflict's core disputes.[25][11] At the signing ceremony, the UAE and Bahraini foreign ministers separately expressed support for Palestinian aspirations and a two-state solution.[4]

The accompanying U.S. incentives generated a distinct debate. The Morocco declaration incorporated U.S. recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over disputed Western Sahara.[14] Proposed F-35 sales to the UAE raised questions about Israel's qualitative military edge.[5] Sudan's removal from the state-sponsors-of-terrorism list and its agreement to pay $335 million to American terrorism victims were also parts of the broader package.[16]

The documents also differ in form. The UAE instrument is a treaty with ratification, dispute-resolution, and UN-registration provisions, while the Bahrain instrument is a declaration setting out diplomatic commitments and a negotiating agenda.[11][12] Sudan's status remains less settled: it signed the umbrella declaration, but its bilateral normalization process stalled, leading some sources to list only the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco as fully normalized Abraham Accords partners.[2][13]