President Trump used a Saturday conference call with eight Muslim and Arab nation leaders to lay out an ambitious regional diplomacy plan: once a deal concluding the Iran war is finalized, he wants them all to sign peace agreements with Israel, according to two U.S. officials briefed on the conversation.
The call included the heads of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain. Trump's pitch signaled his next major move in the Middle East, pivoting from the conflict itself to what he views as the historic opportunity it creates. His real target is a Saudi-Israeli normalization agreement, officials say, though regional politics and an upcoming Israeli election make that prospect complicated right now.
The leaders responded with cautious support for the Iran deal itself. "They all said we are with you on this deal. And if it doesn't work we will be with you too," one official recounted. UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed, who has taken a harder line on Iran policy, signaled backing for Trump's emerging agreement.
But the conversation shifted notably when Trump pivoted to his broader goal. He told the assembled leaders that he expected all nations not yet part of the Abraham Accords to join and establish formal ties with Israel once the Iran situation is resolved. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Pakistan, which lack diplomatic relations with Israel, found the request jarring.
The reaction was telling. "There was silence on the line and Trump joked and asked if they are still there," the official said. Trump then announced that envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff would follow up with each nation in the coming weeks to press the matter.
Trump framed the push publicly in a Sunday post on Truth Social, writing that Middle Eastern countries' support would be "further enhanced and strengthened by their joining the Nations of the historic Abraham Accords." He also mused about Iran eventually joining the accords itself, a prospect that would require Tehran to recognize Israel, something the Iranian regime has rejected for decades and describes as fundamentally incompatible with its ideology.
Congressional Republicans rallied behind the strategy. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a major Abraham Accords advocate and vocal Iran deal skeptic, weighed in forcefully on X. He called Trump's request "consequential" and warned Arab and Muslim nations of fallout if they declined.
"If you refuse to go down this path as suggested by President Trump, it will have severe repercussions for our future relationships and make this peace proposal unacceptable," Graham wrote, adding that historians would view any rejection as "a major miscalculation."
The Saudi pitch faces real obstacles. Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman had shown interest in normalizing relations with Israel previously, but his enthusiasm has cooled considerably over the past year. When Trump pressed the issue during a November Oval Office meeting, Bin Salman resisted and the discussion grew tense.
Saudi officials cite an insurmountable condition: Israel must commit to an irreversible, time-bound pathway toward Palestinian statehood. The Israeli government has flatly refused. The Kingdom has also grown more skeptical of Israel's far-right coalition government, and a widening gap between Saudi Arabia and the UAE over Iran policy has shifted Riyadh's calculus.
Analysts and U.S. officials expect Saudi Arabia to hold fire on any Israel moves until after Israel's September elections, waiting to see which government takes office. The near-term math simply does not favor the breakthrough Trump envisions.
Author James Rodriguez: "Trump is banking on regional gratitude after ending the Iran war to unlock the Saudi normalization he couldn't get in his first term, but the Saudis have moved the goalposts on Palestine, and no amount of post-war euphoria erases that divide."
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