By LINDSAY WHITEHURST and MUNIR AHMED Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Monday that any agreement with Iran should include a requirement for several additional countries, including Saudi Arabia and Turkey, to join the Abraham Accords, the U.S.-brokered agreements from Trump’s first term aimed at normalizing relations with Israel.
In a social media post, Trump said negotiations are “proceeding nicely” but tied any eventual agreement to expanded participation in the 2020 accords.
He pointed to Saudi Arabia and Qatar as countries that should “immediately” sign on, quickly followed by Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt and Jordan.
Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates became the first countries to join in 2020, but it remains to be seen how the proposal to expand the accords will be received.
He wrote that “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.”
The president said he brought up the Abraham Accords plan with leaders during negotiations on Saturday.
In his post, Trump suggested he would accept “one or two” countries declining to sign, but said most should be willing. Egypt and Jordan already formally recognize Israel and have long-standing peace treaties.
Masood Khan, Pakistan’s former ambassador to the United States, said it remains to be seen how workable the proposal might be for all the countries on Trump’s list.
“The invocation of the Abraham Accords at this stage gives an altogether new dimension to the diplomatic and mediatory processes because this issue was not on the agenda,” he said.
Trump’s comments come as criticism from fellow Republicans adds pressure to strike a favorable deal. Still, Khan said, “the diplomatic track is still working, and I believe Pakistan is very much at the center of it, supported by regional countries.”
It remains unclear when or how any deal with Iran might be completed. Trump suggested even Iran could eventually sign on to the accords, if an agreement is reached.
The accords are a series of diplomatic, economic and security agreements created with U.S. influence during Trump’s first term, originally between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, followed by Sudan, Morocco, and more recently, Kazakhstan.
They were framed as an effort to promote cooperation among countries in the Middle East and North Africa, and the administration saw them as partly paving a path toward full ties with Israel.
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Ahmed reported from Islamabad.
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