In 2020, the United States government pushed peace talks and efforts to normalize relations in countries from North Africa to Afghanistan. Though explosions and suicide attacks still occurred and militants continued to fight, it seemed as though peace could be on the horizon. That year, the Trump administration signed two major agreements. The first was signed with the Taliban on February 29. While the official title is “Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan,” it is better known as the Doha Accord. Then, in August and September, U.S.-mediated bilateral agreements were signed between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and then between Israel and Bahrain. Together they are the Abraham Accords.
Some called these agreements the product of then-president Donald Trump’s diplomacy, but subsequent events showed that both agreements were more the result of a strategic shift in U.S. foreign policies. They indicated that the U.S. wanted to tone down conflicts in the Middle East so it could redirect resources to other hotspots, particularly Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe..
As a result, the United States and its allies accepted seemingly costly compromises to lessen their footprint in the region. They effectively gave up any effort to overthrow Hafez Assad’s government in Syria; aren’t challenging Iran’s influence in Iraq as they once did, and avoided confrontation with the regimes in Egypt, Libya, and Sudan.
The Republican administration promoted the Abraham Accord as the “deal of the century.” The title of the agreement, which invoked the name of the common patriarch of Arabs and Jews, reflected an ambitious approach to solving a long-standing conflict that since at least the Crusades has inflicted a costly toll on the followers of the three major Abrahamic religions: Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.
The Abraham Accords symbolically involve four countries with populations of Abrahamic faiths: Muslim (Bahrain, United Arab Emirates), Christian (the United States), and Jewish (Israel). Its proponents believed the accords would start a historic movement that would soon garner the support of many more countries. The Bahraini version of the Abraham Accords was signed on September 15 of that year, following the same pattern as the agreement with the U.A.E. Both agreements were signed by the foreign minister of an Arab country, the prime minister of Israel, and witnessed by the president of the United States, which reflected Arab hesitation and the insistence of the U.S. and Israel.
Unlike typical modern-day agreements that reference the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and common human values, the Abraham Accords spoke of the blood relation between Arabs and Israelis and the shared beliefs of Muslims, Jews, and Christians. The accord stated that the Arab and Israeli people are descendants of their common ancestor, Abraham, and the signatories of the agreement intended to create conditions for the coexistence of Muslims, Jews, Christians, and followers of other religions.
It was expected that Sudan, Oman, and Saudi Arabia would soon join this effort, allowing a new Middle East to emerge — one that would become famous for festivals, sports, freedom, and technological advancements instead of oil, bombings, and tyranny. Saudi Arabia’s ambitious crown prince took the lead, making headlines for unprecedented music festivals, football tournaments, and massive investment pledges in non-oil industries. The media optimistically reported on the “progress” made by Saudi Arabia and Israel towards normalizing relations.
Old stories about the clash of civilizations and conflicts over human rights, democracy, freedom of speech, and struggles against tyranny seemed to vanish from Western newspapers and diplomatic summits, replaced by talk of common ancestors, religious values, and tribal traditions.
In Afghanistan, the Taliban’s inhumane policies after their takeover in 2021 rarely sparked significant reactions. Their closure of schools, blatant discrimination, summary trials, public whippings in sports fields, and the revocation of minimal civil liberties such as the choice of worship style, clothing, hairstyles, and beard length did not provoke an angry response from the international community or self-proclaimed “defenders of democracy.”
In Arab countries, the hope of replacing tyrannical rulers and corrupt regimes vanished. Instead, the United States and its allies turned their focus and their “campaign for freedom and democracy” to helping Ukraine and Taiwan face the autocratic countries of China and Russia.
The Abraham Accords was not the result of an agreement between the societies of the countries involved. Nor was the Doha Accord the final outcome of a dialogue between the people of Afghanistan, the Taliban, and the United States. The Abraham Accords were signed at the White House, and the Doha Accord was also signed in a foreign country, without any Afghan people or government representatives. The tragedy of October 7, 2023, and the catastrophes that followed, proved that a “civilizational accord” cannot be written like a school essay in a closed room. Peace among the followers of the Abrahamic religions cannot be established through a non-civil narrative based on race and an emphasis on a common ancestor.
Instead, real peace is achievable through justice and public participation. As long as the main negotiators in the Middle East are tyrannical rulers and unelected governments, sustained by oil money and Western weapons, and the people of this region continue to feel deprived, voiceless, oppressed, and at risk, peace will not come to the region.
Afghanistan is also suspended in a nightmarish limbo under the Taliban tyranny, thanks to an agreement signed between a terrorist group and the Trump administration. At any moment, a disaster could occur, unravelling the threads of this “paper” peace and reigniting war.
As I write this on the evening of October 6, 2024, the situation in the Middle East is so fragile that I do not know if by tomorrow, when you read this article, whether the flames of war have spread to the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, or Saudi Arabia — the main stars of the Abraham Accords?
For the people of Afghanistan, the lesson of the last year in the Middle East is that we should not see the Doha Accord as the beginning of a new chapter in our country’s political history, nor should we assume that the Taliban will continue to enjoy the support of regional and global powers for a long time, or that the Emirate of tyranny will be immune from storms that could buffet it at any moment. We must be prepared for the possibility of new breakthroughs.
Younus Negah is a researcher and writer from Afghanistan who is currently in exile in Turkey.
