Rt Hon Sir Liam Fox Building on the Abraham Accords means its benefits must be felt

For too long, the Middle East has been defined by conflict. Generations have been stuck in a cycle where they have been denied the hope and opportunity that the rest of us take for granted.

All of us are shaped by our history but those who become prisoners of their history can find themselves trapped in a barren social, political and economic landscape. Too many young people have found themselves in this position, through no fault of their own and, consequently, have never had the chance to ‘dream big’. These are the conditions in which extremism and violence thrive, producing a cul-de-sac of hopelessness.

Political initiatives and agreements have come and gone, from Camp David to Oslo and beyond. While there has been sporadic progress, there has always been a general failure to deliver on the well-meaning intentions of political leaders.

Lack of follow-through

The Abraham Accords—the diplomatic triumph of the first Trump administration—were signed by the leaders of the United States, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain on the South lawn of the White House in September 2020. Morocco joined the process shortly afterwards. As President Trump prioritises the region in his second administration, there will inevitably be renewed focus on the process.

A common feature of all the regional initiatives is that they have tended to be top-down, focused on the political and diplomatic class, with no follow-through plan to provide economic relevance to ordinary citizens. The progress made by the Abraham Accords risks a similar fate unless there is a tangible benefit on the Arab street that equates hope and opportunity with the political process.

Pull Quote: Regional initiatives have tended to be top-down, focused on the political and diplomatic class, with no follow-through plan to provide economic relevance to ordinary citizens

That is why we are launching the Abraham Accords Prosperity project. It is not just a financial instrument, but an ecosystem designed to pull together investors, innovators, and communicators, using all the tools available to us to generate that clear link between the political drive of the Abraham Accords and the improved economic horizon for the next generation of young men and women from the Middle East and North Africa.

Capital and cooperation

The Abraham Accords Prosperity project will deliver new opportunities for young entrepreneurs in the region, providing capital, mentorship and ensuring cooperation (including cross-border) between emerging businesses, creating the cross-fertilisation and interdependence on which long-term prosperity and peace can be fostered.

It is a private market initiative, supported by governments, with a specifically designed mandate and measurable outcomes. It is not a social fund, simply giving out grants to deserving projects, nor is it a traditional venture capital entity whose function is to generate a return to investors at all costs.

It is perhaps best seen as a social, economic and political equity project, requiring a longer timeline than the usual western political cycle. It has an initial ten-year lifetime, and I have agreed to chair it, but we will need to measure progress in decades, where the successful businesspeople we create become the opinion- and policy-formers of the future.

The fund will take forward the aims of the original agreement—to promote peace and reconciliation in the Middle East. It will invest irrespective of the nationality, ethnicity, religion or gender of the applicants.

Opportunity plus readiness

Some say this is not the time for such an initiative and that, in any case, such a project should have been undertaken years ago. On the latter point, they are right, but better late than never. If we wait for the perfect political and security conditions in the Middle East to attempt to break out from the cycle of despair, it will be a long wait, and we will be perpetually disappointed.

A window of opportunity is opening, and we must seize the moment. Too often, in the 30-plus years that I have served in political office, we have prevaricated when such windows of opportunity have opened and, by the time we have summoned the courage to act, they have closed again.

We have a chance to shape the world around us, rather than simply be shaped by it. That is a challenge we should accept with relish. But economic opportunity, on its own, will not be enough to achieve the step change we want to see and offer different choices to the next generation.

So, we are not just building a fund, but a complete and complementary system. The economic activity of the fund will be reinforced by the launch of a new social media project called REACH, designed to talk directly to young people in a medium that is their natural form of communication. It is there to create a mindset shift. After all, the stories we tell shape the way we see the world.

Inspiring change

It will operate on two channels—English and Arabic—speaking directly to the next generation of entrepreneurs with stories that inspire change. It is not just about creating viral content but about changing perspectives, rewriting narratives, and sparking meaningful and lasting social change.

With the terrific creative talents at 1000 Media by Nas Daily (real name Nuseir Yassin, a Palestinian Arab vlogger with Israeli citizenship), we aim in our first year to get up to 100,000 new followers with 20 million views from around the world. We will use motivated and sympathetic social media influencers to multiply the effect and scope of our message, tools that have never been available before for any of the many political initiatives.

Pull Quote: We have a chance to shape the world around us, rather than simply be shaped by it. That is a challenge we should accept with relish

There will be synergy between the role of the fund and the reach of the social media platform that, combined with drive of the politicians, offer us a once-in-a-generation chance to break out of that historical prison.

At a practical level we will be looking to fund young businesspeople and young businesses, including in the space that is too business-orientated for social funds and traditional venture capital projects, building for longevity—not for quick sale.

For example, our Young Professionals Programme will seek to bring together young accountants, insurers, architects and others from across the service sectors spanning Israel, UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and the wider region, including the West Bank, creating new ventures with the interdependencies and shared economic goals that are necessary to create stability for the future.

Creating the conditions

The initiative will help deepen and mature the region’s service sector over time, create jobs and skills, and turn suspicions into partnership. This is an investment in people, not countries. Where we can create joint ventures that ignore traditional borders, we will do so.

By generating wider ownership of prosperity, we hope to provide a new generation of stakeholders. The region needs to move along the spectrum of tolerance to peaceful coexistence and, ultimately, to mutual respect. That is how real stability is created.

Greater prosperity and opportunity can create the right conditions for such a process to flourish, even though they cannot, in themselves, solve deep political and historic divisions. This project is a chance to invest in peace, in every sense.

I hope all those of goodwill will join us, while our window is still open. Ultimately, none of us can choose where we are born, but we can choose where we go and what we do.
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By Rt. Hon. Sir Liam Fox

Rt. Hon. Sir Liam Fox was the UK’s former Secretary of State for Defence (2010-11) and Secretary of State for International Trade (2016-19), having served as a Member of Parliament from 1992 to 2024. He has also been President of the Board of Trade, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Lord Commissioner of the Treasury, and Chairman of the Conservative Party.