US President Donald Trump said on Monday he asked Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, Türkiye, Egypt and Jordan to join the Abraham Accords en masse to normalise relations with Israel as he tries to negotiate an agreement to end the war with Iran.
Pakistan rejected the proposal. None of the other countries has so far publicly reacted to Trump’s demand and a positive response was unlikely when the public mistrust of Israel in the Muslim nations remains high over the scale of its military offensive in Gaza.
Trump said he spoke on Saturday to leaders of those countries, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain, which have already signed the accords. The Abraham Accords are historic US-brokered agreements signed in 2020 that established formal diplomatic, economic and security normalisation between Israel and several Arab nations
“I am mandatorily requesting all countries immediately sign the Abraham Accords, and that, if Iran signs its agreement with me as president of the US, it would be an honour to have them also be part of this unparalleled world coalition,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
He cited “all the work done by the US to try and pull this very complex puzzle together”.
Trump’s statement reflected an attempt to use Iranian ceasefire diplomacy for a wider push around the Abraham Accords, according to a Pakistani source familiar with the matter, who said the two issues were “not interlinked and cannot be made so”.
“Pakistan is under no compulsion to adhere to any such demand,” the source said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office also did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s post.
Deeply sensitive issue
Trump said one or two of the countries he spoke to may have a reason for not joining, but most should be “ready, willing and able to make this settlement with Iran a far more historic event than it would otherwise be”.
For Saudi Arabia — the birthplace of Islam and custodian of its two holiest sites, Mecca and Medina — recognising Israel would be more than only a diplomatic milestone. It is a deeply sensitive national security issue tied to resolving one of the region’s oldest and most intractable conflicts.
The kingdom’s longstanding position has been it would not sign the accords unless there is an agreement on a roadmap to Palestinian statehood.
Egypt, Jordan and Türkiye have diplomatic relations with Israel, even as those ties have been strained since the start of the Gaza war.
Trump also said negotiations with Iran were “proceeding nicely”, but gave no indication a deal was imminent.
Longtime Trump ally senator Lindsey Graham embraced the idea of linking Iran to the Abraham Accords as something that would lead to regional integration and create “a powerhouse for economic opportunity”.
Others see the strategy as something to make an Iran deal more palatable to sceptics.
“Trump is trying to sell an Iran deal as an Abraham Accords sequel: good for Israel, good for the region, tough enough for Washington,” said Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group.
“But he is trading one fantasy for another — from forcing Iran to surrender to pretending a fragile deal can anchor a new Middle East order.”
Trump has repeatedly said he wants to expand the accords he brokered during his first term in the White House.
The UAE and Bahrain signed during Trump’s first term in 2020, breaking a longstanding taboo to become the first Arab states to recognise Israel in a quarter century. Morocco and Sudan followed suit.
Reuters
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