President Donald Trump said on Monday, May 25, that he has asked leaders of six Muslim-majority/ Arab countries, namely, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, and Jordan, to sign the “Abraham Accords” amid the US-Iran negotiations about ending the war. But what are the Abraham Accords?

The Abraham Accords are a series of US-brokered agreements that aim to normalize the diplomatic and commercial relations between Israel and Arab/Muslim majority countries, introduced during Trump’s first presidency.

The term draws from ‘Abraham,’ the foundational figure in three major world religions: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. This symbolizes the shared roots between the participant countries and the mediating country.  

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain were the first two countries to sign the agreement in September 2020, followed by Morocco in December 2020. Sudan and Israel had also agreed to sign the accords. However, the formal signing was delayed. Sudan faced domestic turmoil, while Israel was engaged in its war against Gaza. Kazakhstan became the first country to sign the Accords in Trump’s second term.

“The Abraham Accords represented the first formal normalization of Arab-Israeli diplomatic relations since Israel’s 1994 peace treaty with Jordan and the 1979 Egypt-Israel agreement following negotiations at Camp David,” the Middle East Institute notes. 

The Atlantic Council observed that over the years, normalization with Israel included exchanging ambassadors, opening direct flights, and expanding trade across technology, tourism, and healthcare.

“For the United States, the diplomatic achievement of the Abraham Accords highlights the value of America’s unique form of strategic partnership (as compared to competitors like China) and provides a platform for transforming its partnerships in the Middle East for a new era: away from counterterrorism and forever wars and toward cooperation around mutually beneficial, private-sector-led prosperity,” the Council noted.

Since the beginning of his second term in 2025, President Trump has pushed for the aforementioned Muslim-majority/ Arab countries to sign the Abraham Accords on more than one occasion.

In his Monday, May 25, Truth Social post, Trump said that he told the leaders of the Muslim and Arab states 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.”

Trump added that the expansion of the Accords should begin with Saudi Arabia and Qatar signing immediately. Other countries would be expected to follow afterward. According to the POTUS, any country that refuses to sign should not take part in any deal with Iran because, he said, “it shows bad intention.”

However, he added that one or two countries may have valid reasons for not joining, which, he said, will be accepted. Still, Trump added, most nations should be prepared and willing to support the agreement and help turn the settlement with Iran into a much more historic achievement.

But most nations are pushing back against Trump’s call for the Abraham Accords deal and have put forward their own condition instead: Palestinian statehood.

The Times of Israel reported that following Trump’s remarks, a Saudi source told international media that Riyadh would agree to normalizing ties with Israel only if a clear and “irreversible pathway” toward the creation of a Palestinian state is established.

According to the outlet, the Trump administration has long considered Saudi-Israeli normalization to be the biggest goal of the Abraham Accords. However, progress on the matter slowed significantly during Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza. Since then, Saudi Arabia has repeatedly stressed that any agreement with Israel will come after real progress on the Palestinian issue.

Pakistan too rejected Trump’s linkage, reiterating that it will not recognize Israel until a Palestinian state exists.

Meanwhile, Trump floated the idea that Iran itself — sworn to Israel’s destruction — could ‘perhaps’ join the Abraham Accords. He claimed ‘numerous’ Arab leaders told him they’d be ‘honored’ to have Iran join the Accords coalition.

Trump envisions a vastly expanded Accords framework — not just bilateral ties but a ‘World Coalition.’ He declared the expanded Accords would make the Middle East “United, Powerful, and Economically Strong.”