Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. President Donald Trump and United Arab Emirates (UAE) Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed display their copies of signed agreements as they participate in the signing ceremony of the Abraham Accords, normalizing relations between Israel and some of its Middle East neighbors, in a strategic realignment of Middle Eastern countries against Iran, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, U.S., September 15, 2020.
Tom Brenner | Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that he has asked countries including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey to join the Abraham Accords en masse to normalize relations with Israel as part of an agreement with Iran.
Trump said he spoke on Saturday to leaders of those countries, as well as the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which have already signed the accords, a set of agreements to normalize relations with Israel.
“I am mandatorily requesting that all Countries immediately sign the Abraham Accords, and that, if Iran signs its Agreement with me, as President of the United States of America, it would be an Honor 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 United States to try and pull this very complex puzzle together.”
Trump said those countries would be honored to have Iran as part of the accords once a deal to end the war is reached.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s post.
Trump said one or two of the countries he spoke with 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.”
Trump also said negotiations with Iran were “proceeding nicely” but gave no indication a deal was imminent.
Trump has repeatedly said he wants to expand the accords that he brokered during his first term in the White House.
The United Arab Emirates 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.
Trump had been upbeat about prospects that regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia would finally join the accords after a ceasefire went into effect in Gaza last year, but Riyadh has shown no willingness to move ahead.
Egypt and Jordan have already established relations with Israel.
