Former Middle East Envoy Calls for ‘Grand Bargain’ for Peace at USM Talk

A solution to the long-standing challenge that has vexed every American president since Dwight D. Eisenhower may be at hand, former senior diplomat Ambassador Edward P. Djerejian told an audience at the University of Southern Maine’s McGoldrick Center on Wednesday in calling for a “grand bargain” that could bring peace to the Middle East.

Djerejian served eight U.S. presidents from John F. Kennedy to Bill Clinton, and was ambassador both to Israel and Syria, as well as assistant secretary for Near Eastern Affairs in the George H.W. Bush administration, during which time the Madrid Peace talks were brokered, raising the prospect of two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.

Now retired and teaching at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for International Affairs, Djerejian authored a paper that institution published this week which outlines a comprehensive plan to “seize the opportunity” for peace.

“Whatever you may think about Donald Trump, it’s pretty clear that he doesn’t like war,” Djerejian told a mixed audience of the state’s Armenian community, the World Affairs Council of Maine, and USM students. While he said the Abraham Accords that Trump’s first administration negotiated between Israel and the Gulf States was “peace on the cheap” — meaning an exchange of economic agreements without solving the Palestinian question — now it is time the resolve the underlying cause of violence in the reason.

“If you look at the relatively tiny strip of land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, you have 7.2 million Israelis and 7.2 million Palestinians and while Palestinian birth rates outnumber Israeli ones, those figures aren’t going to dramatically change,” he said in arguing for a solution that grants Palestinian statehood.

Getting there, he believes, requires new elections on both sides. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition is not willing to negotiate, and the Palestinian leadership suffers from endemic corruption — both factors preceding the war that has raged in the Gaza strip since October 7, 2023, Djerejian said. Rebuilding Gaza, he added, is another precondition.

At the same time, it will be necessary to deal with Iran in order to stop them from undermining the peace process. That means addressing the nuclear question by getting them to commit to stop developing a bomb, but allow their civilian nuclear energy development capacity. Together with this, the United States would have to get Tehran to agree to stop funding Hezbollah, the Houthis and Hamas.

If the Palestinian question is handled, though, the Iranians lose their ability to fan the flames of resentment, Djerejian stressed.

So far, the veteran diplomat gave Trump special envoy Stephen Witkoff high marks for what he has been able to achieve both in the Middle East, by brokering a temporary cease-fire over Gaza, and in opening talks with Moscow over Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“For a New York real estate guy, I have to say he’s exceeded my expectations,” Djerejian quipped.

Also a New York native, Djerejian said he learned as much about diplomacy on the “tough streets of Queens” growing up as he did at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. To be a good diplomat, he counseled younger members of the audience, you have to learn everything about your adversary before you even open your mouth.

This same approach, he advised, applies to “finding the common ground” with people you don’t necessarily agree with in today’s hyper-polarized world.

An ethnically Armenian American, Djerejian also spoke at length about the lesser-known conflict in the South Caucasus between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and noted that the fact Witkoff stopped in Baku (the capital of Azerbaijan) en route back from a recent Moscow trip was significant.

“When Trump said he prevented war between two countries most people have never heard of, this is what he was talking about,” Djerejian said.

Those neighboring countries have been fighting over disputed territory since the 1991 break-up of Soviet Union, including Nagorno-Karabakh (which Armenians call Artsakh), militarily seized by Azerbaijan in a 2020 offensive. Some Mainers may have heard about this conflict because the recently-resigned director of Governor Janet Mills’ Office of New Americans, Tarlan Ahmadov, took a delegation of Maine lawmakers to the disputed territory in May of last year on a trip funded by the Azeri government.

Ahmadov resigned on Tuesday, citing health reasons, though his short, controversial tenure as the head of a state office intended to welcome immigrants to Maine was marred by provocative statements made against Armenians, raising serious questions about how he was selected in the first place.