Trump calls for ‘mandatory’ adherence to Abraham Accords in Iran ceasefire talks
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Trump calls for ‘mandatory’ adherence to Abraham Accords in Iran ceasefire talks
US President Donald Trump on Monday threw a new wrench into any deal to end the war on Iran, saying that Saudi Arabia and other Muslim-majority nations must normalise ties with Israel as part of efforts to reach a deal.
The remarks took a US diplomat and an Arab diplomat by surprise. Both said that it was unlikely there would be any movement on normalisation. The Arab official told MEE that Trump may be using normalisation as a “lubricant” to ensure Israeli buy-in for any deal with Iran.
Israel on Monday escalated its strikes on Lebanon, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying that he had ordered the military to “crush” Hezbollah. Iran has been adamant that any agreement to end the war include Lebanon.
“After all the work done by the United States to try and pull this very complex puzzle together, it should be mandatory that all of these Countries, at a minimum, simultaneously, sign onto the Abraham Accords,” Trump wrote in a lengthy social media post.
“Those Countries discussed are Saudi Arabia, The United Arab Emirates (already a Member!), Qatar, Pakistan, Turkiye, Egypt, Jordan, and Bahrain (already a Member!).”
Trump considers the 2020 Abraham Accords, through which the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco normalised ties with Israel, as a major foreign policy achievement. But several of the countries he listed already have diplomatic ties with Israel, although they have become seriously strained by Israel’s genocide in Gaza, where more than 72,790 Palestinians have been killed, and military adventurism against Syria, Lebanon and Iran.
Egypt and Israel established diplomatic ties in 1979, and Jordan followed in 1994. Turkey was the first Muslim-majority country to recognise Israel in 1949.
The US has been lobbying Saudi Arabia for years to normalise ties with Israel. Riyadh mulled the idea in exchange for US weapons and nuclear technology before 7 October 2023, but Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has since publicly accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza and has tied recognition explicitly to the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Pakistan, the Muslim world’s only nuclear-armed state, also has a chilly opinion of Israel. Meanwhile, Qatar was attacked by Israel in September 2025, when the latter targeted Hamas negotiators in Doha.
Shortly after Trump’s social media post, an unidentified Saudi source reiterated to several major US news outlets that the kingdom would only normalise ties with Israel if it agreed to “an irreversible pathway to a Palestinian state”.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman brushed off a similar request by Trump in November 2025 at the White House to normalise ties with Israel.
Oil prices tumble on hopes of deal
Trump’s social media post on Monday comes after his earlier announcement that a deal with Iran to end the war was almost at hand. The US president said over the weekend that a deal had “largely been negotiated”.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested a deal could be reached within the day, causing world oil prices to tumble based on renewed optimism about an agreement.
“We thought we might have some news last night, maybe today,” Rubio told reporters during a visit to New Delhi, referring to hopes for a deal.
“We have what I think is a pretty solid thing on the table in terms of their ability to open up the straits, get the straits open.”
Crude oil prices tumbled six percent on optimism of a deal.
But Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei poured cold water on hopes of a quick final settlement.
“It is correct to say that we have reached a conclusion on a large portion of the issues under discussion,” he told a weekly news briefing on Monday.
“But to say that this means the signing of an agreement is imminent – no one can make such a claim.”
US and Iranian forces have observed a shaky ceasefire since 8 April. Both sides have sought the upper hand at the negotiating table for a wider deal with competing blockades of the Strait of Hormuz, where roughly 20 percent of the world’s energy flows.
Both sides were still engaging in diplomacy as Washington closed for a Memorial Day public holiday and the Middle East prepared for Eid al-Adha.
A high-level Iranian delegation, including the country’s top negotiator and foreign minister, was in Doha on Monday to discuss an agreement with the US and the release of frozen funds, according to US and Israeli media reports.
Meanwhile, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose government is spearheading efforts to mediate a negotiated agreement between the US and Iran, met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing.
Speaking to Chinese leaders, Sharif said “the world is passing through a critical moment,” Pakistan’s state-run PTV channel showed.
المصدر: Middle East Eye