In the latest twist to his bid to end the war against Iran, President Donald Trump on Monday urged several majority-Muslim countries to join the Abraham Accords, a set of treaties aimed at normalizing relations with Israel, as part of the settlement he is seeking to negotiate with Tehran.
Trump, posting on Truth Social, said that Saudi Arabia and Qatar should sign first. He also called on Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt and Jordan to join, even though Turkey has recognized Israel since 1949, and Egypt and Jordan have peace treaties with Israel, signed respectively in 1979 and 1994.
Trump, after speaking Saturday with leaders of nations in the region, said he also envisioned Iran joining 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 posted.
Analysts, however, expressed doubt that the countries would agree to sign on, especially when tensions are running high amid ongoing conflicts in Iran, Lebanon, and Gaza. Official Iranian policy also calls for the eradication of Israel, and its replacement by a Palestinian state.
Bringing all of these nations into the Abraham Accords — which so far have been joined by Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates — will “bring true Power, Strength, and Peace to the Middle East for the first time in 5,000 years,” Trump posted.
He added: “It will be a Document respected like no other that has ever been signed, anywhere in the World.”
Trump made his pitch as some details of his latest effort to reach a deal to end the war in Iran and reopen the Strait of Hormuz came under withering criticism, including by Republicans in Congress.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), posting Saturday on X, said he was “deeply concerned” about what he was hearing about the “Iran ‘deal’ being pushed by some voices in the administration.”
Cruz praised Trump for the military strikes on Iran. But, Cruz wrote, if the result of that means an Iranian regime “now receiving billions of dollars, being able to enrich uranium & develop nuclear weapons, and having effective control over the Strait of Hormuz, then that outcome would be a disastrous mistake.”
“I pray the early reports are wrong,” Cruz posted.
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) the chairman of the Armed Services Committee also questioned the emerging accord.
“The rumored 60-day ceasefire — with the belief that Iran will ever engage in good faith — would be a disaster,” Wicker posted on X. “Everything accomplished by Operation Epic Fury would be for naught!”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) wrote Saturday that if a deal is struck “because it is believed that the Strait of Hormuz cannot be protected from Iranian terrorism and Iran still possesses the capability to destroy major Gulf oil infrastructure, then Iran will be perceived as being a dominate force requiring a diplomatic solution. … It is important we get this right.”
On Monday, Graham called Trump’s Abraham Accords appeal “simply brilliant.”
Trump tried to quell criticism of the deal on Sunday, writing on Truth Social that people “know nothing about the potential deal I am making with Iran, things that haven’t even been negotiated yet.” He said the following day that negotiations were “proceeding nicely.”
While giving a Memorial Day address at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday, Trump briefly addressed the war with Iran, acknowledging that “13 wonderful souls” had been killed.
“These incredible men and women gave their lives to ensure that the world’s number one state sponsor of terror will never have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. “And they won’t. They will never have a nuclear weapon,” he added. The audience seated in the cemetery’s amphitheater cheered.
Arriving back at the White House after the speech, the president did not respond to a shouted question from The Washington Post about the status of the deal with Iran.
U.S. and Iranian officials signaled progress over the weekend on the development of a framework to extend a ceasefire by 60 days while they negotiate a final accord. However, further details had not emerged yet on Monday, despite claims by some officials that they would be forthcoming.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday pushed back on the suggestion that talks were hitting snags or that the emerging deal would set back U.S. interests.
On Sunday, Rubio had predicted there would be an imminent announcement on a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but the fact that it didn’t happen was something he “wouldn’t read too much into,” he told reporters in New Delhi on Monday.
“Takes a little while to hear back,” Rubio said, regarding the expected response from Iran.
“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, enter into a very real, significant, time-limited negotiation on the nuclear matter, and hopefully we can pull it off,” Rubio said.
At his weekly news conference on Monday, the spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, Esmaeil Baqaei, cited progress but denied an agreement was imminent.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, two of the country’s top negotiators, arrived to Doha, Qatar, for talks on the deal, according to the semiofficial Mehr News Agency.
Trump, meanwhile, called on Saudi Arabia and Qatar to lead the way in the expansion of the Abraham Accords.
“It should start with the immediate signing by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and everybody else should follow suit,” Trump posted. “If they don’t, they should not be part of this Deal in that it shows bad intention.”
While successive U.S. administrations have soughtSaudi-Israeli normalization, Saudi Arabia has long maintainedthat it would not establish ties with Israel without the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Trump, stressing the possibility of including Iran in the Abraham Accords, added: “Wow, now that would be something special! This will be the most important Deal that any of these Great, but always in Conflict Countries, will ever sign.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, posting Saturday on X, said that he had spoken with Trump about the memorandum of understanding to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Netanyahu has not publicly commented on Trump’s Abraham Accords appeal, but told CBS’s “60 Minutes” earlier this month that he “now see[s] the possibility of the expansion of those agreements.” He said that possibility was “the result of the change in the relative power of Israel.”
Dan Shapiro, a U.S. ambassador to Israel in the Obama administration, wroteon X that while he is a proponent of eventually expanding the Abraham Accords, tying that expansion to a deal to end the war is “needlessly complicated and unrealistic,” especially in the “current atmosphere” of the unsettled wars in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Iran.
Pathways to greater regional integration will include economic opportunities, regional arrangements and progress toward an Israeli-Palestinian resolution, Shapiro wrote: “Trump just publicly demanding these leaders fall into line as part of a deal to end the war with Iran is not going to work.”
Hudson reported from New Delhi. Natalie Allison contributed to this report.
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