David Friedman
David FriedmanMarc Israel Sellem

The retreat of the United States from the world stage could doom the Abraham Accords, former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman said at The Jerusalem Post Annual Conference on Tuesday, in a warning to the Biden Administration.

"This won't work if America retreats from the world stage and fails to project its values in the region," said Friedman as he spoke with the paper's senior contributing editor and diplomatic correspondent Lahav Harkov at Jerusalem's Museum of Tolerance.

He spoke of the deal brokered by the former Trump administration under whose rubric Israel normalized ties with four Arab countries; the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.

As a Trump administration envoy in the region, Friedman was a part of the process from its infancy. On Monday, he launched the Friedman Center for Peace through Strength to help continue to advance the Accords. He has just completed a documentary on the process and is authoring a book on the initiative.

The Accords, he said, were possible because they were backed by a strong US that guided and encouraged ties between Arab nations and Israel, offering political, economic and security support.