US President Donald Trump’s demand that Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt and Jordan sign the Abraham Accords have left these countries stumped. Banasree Purkayastha looks at what makes West Asian countries reluctant to sign the pact, & whether this could jeopardise the emerging peace deal with Iran
What does the US President want?
On Monday, US President Donald Trump linked a peace deal with Iran to six Muslim countries — Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt and Jordan — signing the Abraham Accords. “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 said the expansion of the accords should start with the immediate signing by Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Trump has also suggested that he was indeed envisioning a vastly expanded Abraham Accords framework over simply establishing ties between Israel and its neighbours. The Accords bypass the Arab Peace Initiative prerequisite, which required resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict before establishing formal ties with Israel.
Egypt and Jordan have had peace treaties with Israel since 1979 and 1994, respectively. So it is not clear what added advantage signing the Accords would bring. Turkey has diplomatic ties with Israel though these have soured in the last ten years.
What exactly are the Abraham Accords?
The Abraham accords are US-brokered bilateral agreements from Trump’s first term aimed at normalising Arab nations’ relations with Israel. The Accords were first signed in September 2020 by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain, followed by Morocco and Sudan months later.
The Accords represent the first formal normalisation of Arab-Israeli diplomatic relations since Israel’s 1994 peace treaty with Jordan and the 1979 Egypt-Israel agreement that followed negotiations at Camp David. The name “Abraham” emphasises the shared Abrahamic roots of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity — the majority faiths of the participant countries and the deal-maker.
The Trump administration in its second term has been trying to expand the Accords beyond their initial signatories, urging Azerbaijan and other post-Soviet Central Asian governments to join the pact. In November 2025, Kazakhstan also formally joined the pact.
What are the sign-up benefits?
Trump, in his post, said the Accords have proven to be “a financial, economic, and social boom, even during this time of conflict and war, with the current members never even suggesting leaving, or taking so much as even a pause.”
The Abraham Accords have provided a foundation for broader regional integration efforts among the Gulf countries and the establishment of new transcontinental trade corridors — facilitating direct flights, trade partnerships, technology cooperation, besides serving as an emerging regional security alignment against their shared perception of Iran as a regional threat.
According to the Washington-based Middle East Institute, one of the most significant outcomes was the signing of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between Israel and the UAE in 2023. “The Accords spurred the development of strategic Israeli-Arab military cooperation and security agreements,” it said.
Why link this with the peace talks?
According to the Times of Israel, Trump’s post suggests that he was seeking to offer Israel an upside in the nascent deal to end the war with Iran, whose reported terms have set off alarm bells in Jerusalem.
“Israeli officials are concerned that the deal, which would reportedly begin with a 60-day extension of the ceasefire, does not address Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs or its support for regional proxies, delaying negotiations on these and other key war goals,” it said.
While several US senators have criticised the emerging peace deal with Iran, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina called Trump’s request for normalisation of ties with Israel “brilliant.” “If in fact as a result of these negotiations to end the Iranian conflict, our Arab and Muslim allies in the region agreed to join the Abraham Accords, it would make this agreement one of the most consequential in the history of the Middle East,” Graham posted on X.
What has been the response so far?
While Pakistan has rejected the proposal outright, none of the other countries has so far publicly reacted to Trump’s demand. If they refuse to sign, they stand to lose significant security, diplomatic and economic benefits as ‘friends of the US’ besides derailing the US-Iran peace talks. If they agree, they risk facing a domestic backlash.
Trump has already said if the countries do not agree, they should not be involved in any deal with Iran as “it shows bad intention.” Pakistan has been trying to play mediator in the ongoing US-Iran peace talks. Qatar is a key US ally and was a central mediator in negotiations between Israel and Hamas throughout the two-year Gaza war.
A positive response is difficult given that the public mistrust of Israel in these Muslim nations remains high over the scale of its military offensive in Gaza. Saudi Arabia has all along said it would not sign the accords unless there is an agreement on a roadmap to Palestinian statehood.