STATEMENT: LT. GENERAL (RET.) KEITH KELLOGG ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE ABRAHAM ACCORDS

Lt. General (Ret.) Keith Kellogg, Co-Chairman of the Center for American Security, offered the following statement on the anniversary of the signing of the Abraham Accords: 

“One year ago today, the Trump Administration opened a new chapter in Middle East history with the signing of the Abraham Accords between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Bahrain. The agreement signed on that sunny Tuesday on the South Lawn of the White House was not only the first agreement signed by Israel and its neighbors in a quarter of a century, but it was also the first true normalization of relations between nations in the region – one that was characterized by not only an exchange of ambassadors, but also of cultural and commercial exchanges between peoples. The next month, an agreement between Israel and Sudan occurred, and in December 2020, an agreement between Israel and Morocco.

The Abraham Accords were possible because President Trump chose to abandon decades of obsolescent Washington policy thinking, and introduced a new vision for the Middle East. In particular, he rejected the decades-long flawed peace process that punished America’s friends and accommodated its enemies. In its place, President Trump introduced a new framework that reflected the desires and security needs of the people of the region. That new approach, coupled with President Trump’s decisive action to deter regional adversaries, set the foundation for a future of enduring security and prosperity for the people of the Middle East.”