Why There's Hope for a Better Mideast

It's said that the Middle East is a graveyard of dreams. Every glimmer of home for peace and the region's development is too often snuffed out.

But there are exceptions.

In 2020, as President Donald Trump was ending his first term, he helped coordinate the Abraham Accords. They were a series of agreements normalizing relations between Israel and four Arab States: the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco.

Since then, they have fostered diplomatic ties, trade, and regional stability, although plans to expand them to other countries were tragically cut short by Hamas' invasion of Israel in October 2023. 

But there is now a chance the Abraham Accords can begin expanding again. Israeli 
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Baku, the capital of the republic of Azerbaijan, on May 8 with the goal of adding a secular, Shiite-majority nation to the roster of Arab Sunni states that are already part of the Abraham Accords. 

Last month, Netanyahu told Israel's parliament he even envisions a trilateral alliance with Azerbaijan and the United States. A few days after Netanyahu's speech, Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, visited Baku to work toward expanding regional cooperation and countering Iran's influence in the Muslim world. 

Azerbaijan's geographic location would be useful in this strategy. It shares a 428-mile border with Iran to its south.

Its other neighbors are Russia, Armenia, Georgia, and Turkey. Centuries ago, it lay along the famous Silk Road, which was a crossroads for trade between  Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.  

Long a bridge between different civilizations, Azerbaijan has ambitions to play a bigger role in the Middle East now that it has almost completed a peace agreement with Armenia, with which it has fought an on-again, off-again conflict since both countries broke away from the Soviet Union in 1991.

When it achieved independence in 1991, Azerbaijan immediately took a different path than many would have expected. Rich in energy resources, it became the only predominantly Muslim nation to supply oil to Israel and established diplomatic relations with it that remain strong to this day.

Azerbaijan has long had a mix of cultural influences that has allowed it to be open to the outside world.

I visited the country this month on a trip sponsored by local think tanks. You can easily see traces of the Persians, Ottomans, Russians, and Europeans in the country.

Alfred Nobel, whose fortune endowed the Nobel Prizes, actually made his family's millions running an energy company in Baku (which was so oil-rich that it provided 50% of the world's oil supply in 1901). 

George Landrith, president of the Washington-based Frontiers of Freedom Institute, notes that Azerbaijan's mix of cultures is unique in the region: "It is a majority-Muslim country, but it is not defined by religious extremism. Instead, mosques, synagogues, and Christian churches stand side by side.

"Jews have lived in Azerbaijan for more than 2,000 years and continue to flourish there. Christian communities worship freely. ... That spirit of pluralism could serve as a model for other nations in the region."

Of course, pluralism goes only so far in the Middle East. Azerbaijan has had just two presidents since 1993: Heydar Aliyev, a former member of the Soviet Politburo who died in 2003, and his son, Ilham Aliyev.

Although the regime is clearly not democratic, it has done a remarkable job of managing rather than wasting its energy riches. Baku is filled with modernistic buildings and has hosted both the Eurovision Song Contest and last year's United Nations Climate Change Conference.  

The Middle East is a rough neighborhood, which is why people who yearn for it to become more prosperous, peaceful, and tolerant have to work with whatever building materials the countries there have.

In that respect, here's hoping that Netanyahu's visit to Baku next week helps in a small way to advance the progress that the Abraham Accords represented before they were stalled by the Israel-Hamas war. 

John Fund is a columnist and is considered a notable expert on American politics and the nexus between politics and economics and legal issues. He previously served as a columnist and editorial board member for The Wall Street Journal, and is also the author of several books, including "Who's Counting: Bow Fraudsters and Bureaucrats Put Your Vote At Risk," "Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy,” and "The Dangers of Regulation Through Litigation." John Fund is also a contributor to Newsmax TV. Read more here.