Home » Freeze “Abraham Fund”: Trump enters the Biden era in the Middle East region | Palestine | Al Jazeera

Freeze “Abraham Fund”: Trump enters the Biden era in the Middle East region | Palestine | Al Jazeera

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The administration of US President Joe Biden decided to freeze the “Abraham Fund” established by former President Donald Trump in September 2020. According to Israeli analysts, this reflects the White House’s tendency to completely reverse the former President’s Middle East policy and influence. Article and formulate a new US foreign policy for the region.

After Israel signed the “Abraham Agreement” to normalize relations with the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan, the United States, Israel, and the UAE cooperated to establish this investment fund, and announced in October 2020 that it would provide more than US$3 billion “to strengthen peace Promote economic cooperation and prosperity inside and outside the Middle East” and require partner countries to advance these goals.

The Hebrew newspaper Globes revealed on the 7th that the Biden administration has suspended related activities of the “Abraham Fund” indefinitely.

The newspaper’s economic editor Danny Zaken believes that the White House’s decision to freeze the fund’s activities means that although the Biden administration has issued a statement in support of Arab-Israeli normalization, it will not allocate budget to support the “Abraham Agreement”. This investment fund has emerged to encourage more countries to join the agreement on normalization of relations.

Freeze and impact

Zaken believes that the freezing of investment funds will have a negative impact on the economic and trade normalization projects between countries that have signed the normalization agreement. In addition, it will also prevent any future commercial and economic exchange projects.

The economic editor pointed out that three months after the fund was launched, it has processed hundreds of financing applications for various commercial projects and approved 11 projects in the fields of energy, petroleum, and technology content industries.

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Zaken pointed out that the Biden administration’s actions show that the United States attaches importance to the establishment of a new foreign policy in the Middle East to provide political and diplomatic support for the normalization of Arab countries and Israel, including encouraging more Arab countries to participate in it. However, regulating US financial support for commercial and economic projects is not an option. Therefore, the fund’s activities have been frozen indefinitely, which will be the first step towards the complete abolition of the fund.

Zaken quoted sources from the United States and Israel to reveal the news of the freezing of the “Abraham Fund”. He explained that this measure will maintain the normalization of relations between the regimes, just like the peace agreements signed between Israel, Egypt and Jordan. This conflicts with the stated goal of the “Abraham Agreement.”

He also believes that freezing investment funds will close the door to the initiative and prevent more large companies from joining related commercial projects. It is reported that the management of the fund has received requests from US financial institutions to join, and these institutions have expressed their willingness to invest in the fund and double its capital.

The editor pointed out that the UAE announced the launch of the “UAE-Israel Investment Fund” in March this year, with an initial budget of US$10 billion. The UAE’s decision was made after it was discovered that the Biden government clearly tends not to support any commercial and economic projects within the framework of the normalization agreement.

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Although the UAE and Israel announced the establishment of a joint fund, the fund has not yet registered any actual steps in the UAE’s investment in Israel.

The “Abraham Fund” was established to support the agreement to normalize political relations between Israel and some Arab countries (European News Agency)

New policy

Regarding the reasons and motives for the Biden administration to take this step, Yovaf Stern, an Israeli reporter who studies Arab and Palestinian affairs, believes that the answer to this question is related to the new US policy in the Middle East. At present, its new policy is still Through the process of dealing with multiple issues including the Gaza War, the Iranian nuclear issue, the Yemen crisis, the situation in Syria and Iraq, it reflects and reshapes its alliance and interests in Middle East affairs.

The Israeli reporter told Al Jazeera reporters that the decision to freeze investment funds is one of the efforts made to erase Trump’s legacy, policies and actions. President Biden strives to establish his personal characteristics and formulate clear policies and adoption The new foreign policy sets out priorities and strategies that are completely different from those of his predecessor Trump.

Stern believes that the freezing of investment fund activities may retain the “cold peace” characteristics of the normalization agreement, similar to the peace agreements reached between Israel and Egypt and Jordan. He also believes that the United States is likely to follow this move. Bringing a series of measures to seek financing sources, to involve more countries to expand the scope of normalization of relations, and to promote all parties to the road of “economic peace.”

Nimrod Jon, Director of Israel’s “Mitvim” Institute: The fund was also established to support Netanyahu’s response to his political crisis (Al Jazeera)

Benefits and goals

Nimrod Jon, the director of the Israeli Institute “Mitvim”, which specializes in foreign policy in Israel and the Middle East, also agrees with Stern’s point of view. He also pointed out that he believes that the Biden administration took this measure because of Tron. When setting up the fund, it was too hasty, without actual research, and did not set clear goals. In addition, this fund was established to support Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who is facing a political crisis of overthrowing his rule after 12 years in power.

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Under the new US policy trend, where will the “Abraham Agreement” go in the future? In this regard, Jon pointed out to a reporter from Peninsula.com that “the official normalization agreement signed is not enough to establish normal relations between the people. This requires establishing relations at the level of civil society and building human infrastructure for joint activities…”

Jon also believes that freezing this investment fund will not affect the normalization and peaceful relations between the various regimes, but it will “have a negative impact on the scale of economic and trade cooperation between Israel and the Arab regimes that have normalized relations with it.” .

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