During a conference call over the past weekend, U.S. President Donald Trump addressed the leaders of Arab and Muslim countries, urging them to join the Abraham Accords after the war with Iran concludes. However, this initiative caused surprise among the participants, as most of them do not have official diplomatic relations with Israel.
This is reported by Finway
Unexpected pause during the conversation
Particularly surprising was the reaction of representatives from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Pakistan. According to one American official, after Trump’s address, there was silence on the line, which was only broken by his joke about the presence of the participants:
“There was silence on the line, and Trump joked, asking if they were all still there,” said one American official.
During the conversation, the U.S. President discussed the upcoming deal with Iran with leaders from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, and Bahrain. In particular, UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed confirmed support for the war with Iran, while most participants expressed their willingness to act together with the U.S. in the event of a failure in negotiations.
Conditions for peace agreements and countries’ reactions
During the conversation, Trump stated that after the war with Iran, he expects all countries that have not signed the Abraham Accords or do not have peace relations with Israel to join them. To coordinate this process, he will involve his envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff.
Trump also thanked the countries of the Middle East for their cooperation and stated that it would strengthen even more after their joining the accords. Among the ideas voiced by the U.S. President was the possibility of even Iran joining the Abraham Accords if Tehran recognizes Israel, something the Iranian regime has stubbornly avoided for decades.
It is worth noting that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had previously expressed readiness to normalize relations with Israel, but recently has become more skeptical about this idea. In November of last year, during a meeting in the Oval Office, Trump proposed to bin Salman to join the Abraham Accords, but he declined, leading to tension in the conversation.
Currently, Saudi Arabia insists on the creation of a Palestinian state as a condition for normalizing relations with Israel, but the Israeli government does not accept this demand. At the same time, a difficult phone conversation recently took place between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump regarding Washington’s approach to negotiations with Iran, during which Netanyahu expressed his outrage at the U.S. diplomatic strategy.