Former UN chief Ban Ki-moon lauds ‘miraculous’ Abraham Accords in memoir

South Korean diplomat says the agreement averted an Israeli grab of Palestinian land

Ban Ki-moon served as UN secretary general from 2007 to 2016. Reuters 

Former UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon lauds the Abraham Accords between the UAE and Israel in his new memoir for “miraculously” averting an attempt by Israel to annex more Palestinian land.

Mr Ban, who served as UN chief from 2007 to 2016, said that Washington had given Israel a “green light”  in 2020 to take possession of one third of the West Bank.

“Miraculously, it was the UAE that had delayed implementation of this disastrous endeavour,” Mr Ban says in the book.

“On September 15, 2020, the White House announced the Abraham Accords, in which the UAE agreed to diplomatic recognition of a state that, theoretically, is at war with most of the Arab world.”

Since then, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan have normalised ties with Israel in what amounts to one of the most significant shifts in the long-stalled Middle East peace process in years.

“Most of the Gulf countries have quiet trade agreements with Israel, but full recognition was, indeed, a momentous development,” Mr Ban added.

“It had been 25 years since Jordan established relations with Israel and 40 years since Egypt paved the way.”

The Palestinians seek an independent state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, all territory captured by Israel in the is Arab-Israeli conflict in 1967.

In his 344-page book, Resolved: Uniting Nations in a Divided World, Mr Ban also writes about the Arab uprisings, Iran's nuclear programme, the Ebola epidemic, new conflicts in Central Africa and global efforts to fight poverty and the climate crisis.