- Dialogue that recognizes need to combine normalization with peace progress is key to a lasting settlement, Sven Koopmans tells Arab News
- He says Saudi Arabia has a very important role to play in the resolution of Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Arab conflicts
RIYADH: Normalization between Israel and Arab nations ought to occur in tandem with resolving simmering regional conflict because the Abraham Accords alone have not fundamentally changed the situation for the Palestinians, Sven Koopmans, the EU special representative for the Middle East Peace Process, has said.
The Abraham Accords are a series of agreements that have resulted in the establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and four Arab countries. The UAE was the first to sign the pact in 2020, inaugurating a new era of political, economic and security cooperation with Israel in the face of common strategic concerns and regional threats.
“I think these accords have, in some way, shown that change is possible,” Koopmans, a Dutch international lawyer and former politician, told Arab News during a visit to Riyadh on Monday
“Relations between the countries (concerned) have changed and we see positive things come out of it. At the same time, I do not believe that those agreements have fundamentally changed the situation for the Palestinians.”
Although welcomed by much of the international community at the time, skeptics had warned that normalization alone would do little to resolve the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict, nor would it bring about a final settlement based on the two-state solution.