President Donald Trump's demand that more Muslim-majority nations join the Abraham Accords as part of negotiations tied to ending the Iran conflict is being shrugged off or even mocked across the Middle East.
According to a report from POLITICO, officials from several Arab and Muslim-majority countries privately dismissed Trump's proposal, with one former U.S. official saying some diplomats responded with laughing emojis after hearing mock congratulations about supposedly joining the accords.
Trump reignited the issue Monday in a Truth Social post in which he said he was "mandatorily requesting" countries including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Qatar, Turkey, and Egypt to join the Abraham Accords, the normalization framework between Israel and several Arab nations first brokered during his first administration.
He also said on Wednesday that he is "not sure" he will sign a deal with Iran if the countries don't join the accords.
The proposal came as fragile diplomatic efforts continue. New U.S. strikes targeting Iranian missile infrastructure and Israeli military operations in Lebanon have increased fears that the already unstable ceasefire in the region could collapse.
But diplomats and analysts quoted in the report suggested Trump's proposal may complicate those negotiations instead of helping them. "It is a smart tactic to calm down the angry base," a Gulf Arab diplomat told the outlet. "He will keep bringing it up again and again. But it will not be part of the deal."
The Abraham Accords, signed in 2020, normalized relations between Israel and countries including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan. Trump and his allies have repeatedly portrayed the agreements as one of the defining foreign policy achievements of his first term.
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly defended the administration's position in a statement to POLITICO, saying the accords "have provided massive economic benefits to all countries involved and enabled historic cooperation." Still, regional governments appear reluctant to publicly embrace Trump's latest demand, especially as anger over the Gaza war continues across the Muslim world.
Saudi Arabia has maintained that it will not establish official ties with Israel without meaningful progress toward Palestinian statehood. A Gulf Arab official told POLITICO that Riyadh's position "has not changed."
"The Kingdom is supportive of all diplomatic efforts to resolve conflict, not military solutions," the official said. "Its position on the two-state solution being the only sensible way forward has not changed."
Pakistan, which has emerged as one of the mediators in talks involving Iran, also signaled resistance. Defense Minister Khawaja Asif told Samaa TV that joining the accords would conflict with the country's "fundamental views." "In my personal view, I don't think we'll be part of any accords like this," Asif said.
One former U.S. official told POLITICO that several Arab contacts viewed Trump's proposal as a "poison pill" that could derail negotiations entirely by adding conditions unacceptable to both Iran and many Muslim-majority governments.
Michael Ratney, a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, told the outlet that Gulf governments are trying to avoid provoking Trump while still protecting their own strategic interests. "Gulf states all seem to be trying to navigate a highly imperfect end to the war without antagonizing Trump and without Trump caving on their core interests," Ratney said.
