Why Muslim Leaders Are Snubbing Trump’s Israel Normalisation Push

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s surprising request for Gulf and Arab nations to normalise relations with Israel as part of Iran peace talks has clashed with the complex realities of the Middle East. None of the countries Trump approached have expressed willingness to join the Abraham Accords. Pakistan, which is mediating talks between the US and Iran, immediately rejected the idea of joining the Abraham Accords, while other nations remained silent. The Hill analysis suggests experts find the request confusing and highly unlikely given regional tensions. Trump is under pressure from Israel and his hardline supporters to secure a deal beyond the 2015 Obama-era nuclear agreement with Iran, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which did not address Iran’s ballistic missile programme, support for armed proxy groups across the region, or global terrorist attacks. The expansion of the Abraham Accords could theoretically blunt Iran’s regional threat by normalising relations with its rivals, while fulfilling one of Trump’s key foreign policy priorities for a second term. ‘I think part of this war is being waged as an attempt at regional transformation,’ said David Schenker, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and former Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs during Trump’s first term. Trump first raised the proposal to expand the accord via phone calls with leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, and Bahrain. Axios reported that Trump’s proposal received no response, prompting him to question whether the leaders were still connected. For Pakistan and Qatar, mediating ties with Israel is no simple matter. On Monday, Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif described joining the accord as contrary to their ‘fundamental ideology’ in a local TV interview. ‘We have not taken any initiative on this matter, and no one has asked us,’ he said. For Qatar, there is deep animosity towards Netanyahu, who has labelled the country a terrorist state and conducted strikes in Doha targeting Hamas officials, despite the US and Israel using Qatar as a mediator with Hamas. Yaakov Amidror, a retired Israeli major general and former national security adviser to Netanyahu, described Qatar as an ‘enemy of Israel.’