Sir Liam Fox announces Gibraltar chapter of UK Abraham Accords Group

Former Conservative minister Sir Liam Fox announced plans on Thursday for a Gibraltar chapter of the UK Abraham Accords Group, a non-partisan, non-profit organisation that works to promote peace and economic prosperity in the Middle East, as well as support trade, governmental and cultural cooperation. 

The Abraham Accords were brokered by the US in 2020 under the first Trump administration and normalised diplomatic relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Morocco and Sudan joined the structure some months later. 

Sir Liam, who served as Defence Secretary and trade minister before leaving frontline politics this year, was appointed in 2021 by the ambassadors to the UK from Israel, Bahrain and the UAE to chair the UK Abraham Accords Group. 

Now, as the Abraham Accords mark their fourth anniversary against the backdrop of a year of conflict in the Middle East, Sir Liam believes the goals that underpin them are more important than ever to secure enduring peace. 

“We've always taken the view that none of us are passengers in our own destiny, we can actually shape the world around us if we choose to do so,” he told reporters on Thursday. 

“We have a limited ability to influence events [in the Middle East], but what we can do is to prepare for the future, and we can say there is a better alternative to what you've had in the past and we can start to work towards it.” 

“I think that for ordinary people of whatever community, the fact that they can contribute in some way to a positive view of the region, which is in all too short a supply today, I think is a good thing.” 

“And I think it is a counterbalance to that frustration and to the anger to say, well okay, what are you going to do about it?” 

The UK group aims to support and promote the aims of the Abraham Accords and the work of the countries that participate in them. 

And Gibraltar, Sir Liam said, could play a small part in supporting those aims and the group’s work. 

“Show is always better than tell,” he said. 

“And Gibraltar itself is totemic in showing just how the relationship between different communities can work peacefully.” 

“It's not a question of tolerance, it's not even a question of peaceful coexistence. It's at the top of the ladder, which is mutual respect.” 

“And this is a place that shows that it can be done, which is really important at a time when many people have lost faith in a process such as this.”  

“So it's important in the sense that it sets a clear example of what people are aspiring to in the Abraham Accords, which was the greatest triumph, in my view, of the first Trump administration, and which is likely to get a lot more impetus in the second administration.” 

Sir Liam said he believed Gibraltar could offer practical support too, for example through fund raising. 

Among other initiatives, the UK group is setting up a fund to provide financing for start-up companies run by young people in the region. 

Sir Liam said the group had already held discussions in Gibraltar and planned a public launch of the local chapter in the coming months. 

“I think that we've got to find a new path for young people that takes them away from the sterility and the barrenness of the politics of the past and gives them opportunity and hope and in some way connects them with a political process from which they may have felt disconnected,” he said.  

“So, in other words, providing a tangible benefit on the Arab street to the Abraham Accords, which are very often viewed as top down.” 

Sir Liam was speaking during a short press conference in No.6 Convent Place, sitting alongside Chief Minister Fabian Picardo. 

The plan to set up a local chapter of the UK Abraham Accords Group is not a Gibraltar Government initiative, but it has its support. 

“He is looking to include Gibraltar in the work that he's doing out of government, in something which I think is entirely the sort of issue that Gibraltar wants to be associated with, which is the promotion of understanding between the State of Israel and other Arab nations and something on which Gibraltar socially is a positive reflection for the world, as we very often say,” Mr Picardo said. 

Mr Picardo acknowledged that the conflict in Gaza had polarised public opinion in Gibraltar earlier this year, just as it has done in cities across the world. 

But asked whether Sir Liam’s initiative and the government’s support for it might risk reigniting those tensions in Gibraltar, Mr Picardo said he believed the opposite was true. 

“We've always said that the relationship that we enjoy between interfaith groups and interethnic groups in Gibraltar is not any longer based on tolerance,” Mr Picardo said. 

“It is based on respect.” 

“The things that have strained that respect do not relate to anything that has happened in Gibraltar. They relate to things that have happened outside of Gibraltar.” 

“We've been very careful always to ensure that insofar as the government acts, it doesn't act in a way that might bring those problems that are creating tensions into Gibraltar.” 

“That's why, actually, I think the Abraham Accords chapter being established in Gibraltar will do the opposite of what you are suggesting.” 

“And that's why I've entirely agreed that this is something we must pursue.” 

“Because what the Accords are trying to promote are not the divisions that we are seeing and the harrowing images that we've seen on our television screens.” 

“They're trying to promote a future where those scenes are never seen again.” 

“They're trying to promote respect by bringing about some opportunity beyond war and conflict.” 

“And this is why I'm so struck by the way that Liam represents this.”  

“Even if Gibraltar is just a grain of sand, I think people from all of our religious communities, from all of our ethnic communities, from all of our lay communities, would want to see us lay that grain of sand towards a better future beyond the scenes that we're seeing today, something which creates optimism for children, for young people, for entrepreneurs of any age in any of the Abraham Accord countries, that suggests that there is something that can be done better than just praying for peace, better than just hoping for peace, or better than just sticking to traditional positions which have not delivered peace.” 

And he added: “This is not to support any side in the present conflict.” 

“This is to support all of the countries that have signed up to the Accords, which includes one of the sides of the conflict and other sides and other parties which are not sides to the conflict, in promoting a future beyond conflict.”