The Role of the Arab States
Chatham House briefing
Published 30 January 2019
Updated 26 September 2024
ISBN: 978 1 78413 316 0
Because of their good relations with both the US and Israel, certain Arab states are well placed to play an important role in Israeli–Palestinian peacemaking. This briefing explores four scenarios concerning their role in the process and the likely outcomes.
The authors of this paper would like thank colleagues at Chatham House – especially Robin Niblett, its director; Lina Khatib, the head of the Middle East and North Africa Programme; and the programme’s team – for their continuous support of the ‘Israel–Palestine: Beyond the Stalemate’ project. We would like also to thank our generous funders for making this project possible. We hope that by enabling this project we can contribute to improving understanding of the pitfalls in bringing peace and how to overcome them, and also to facilitating future constructive dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians of all political persuasions. We would like also to extend our gratitude to many people whose names we will keep anonymous for obvious reasons – their willingness to share their knowledge, wisdom and experience with us helped to inform the insights in this paper.
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Programme undertakes high-profile research on political, economic and security issues affecting the MENA region. To complement our research, the MENA Programme runs a variety of discussion groups, roundtable meetings, workshops and public events which seek to inform and broaden current debates about the region and about UK and international policy towards it. We also produce a range of publications, including reports, research papers and briefings.
https://www.chathamhouse.org/about/structure/mena-programme
The ‘Israel–Palestine: Beyond the Stalemate’ project aims to create a platform for constructive and frank dialogue among Israelis and Palestinians and other stakeholders. Through consultation with leading thinkers and practitioners on the conflict, Chatham House research is analysing developments in Israel, among the Palestinians and in the regional and international contexts, to establish what new possibilities might exist for political progress. The project seeks not only to deal with the shape of a lasting settlement of the conflict but also to examine ways of promoting better Israeli–Palestinian relations in the period leading up to such a settlement.
