Trump urges Middle Eastern countries to join Abraham Accords

US President Donald Trump has called on several Middle Eastern countries and Pakistan to join the Abraham Accords on the normalisation of relations with Israel, provided that a peace agreement is reached between Washington and Tehran.

According to Axios, citing two US officials, Trump discussed the issue on May 23 in a phone call with leaders of Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye.

The White House leader expressed hope that once the Iran conflict is resolved, countries not already part of the Abraham Accords and without peace treaties with Israel would move toward normalisation with Tel Aviv.

Axios noted that officials from Qatar, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were surprised by the proposal. 

“There was silence on the line and Trump joked and asked if they are still there,” one official told the outlet.

The American leader added that US special envoy Steve Witkoff and businessman Jared Kushner will handle the issue of normalisation between these countries and Israel in the coming weeks.

Trump previously suggested on Truth Social that Iran itself could eventually join the Abraham Accords.

The Abraham Accords were brokered by the United States in 2020–2021, leading to normalisation of relations with Israel by Bahrain, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and Sudan. Prior to that, only Egypt and Jordan maintained formal diplomatic relations with Israel among Arab states.

By Jeyhun Aghazada