In one of the most sweeping and audacious diplomatic declarations of his presidency, U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday, May 25, 2026 formally linked the emerging US-Iran peace deal to the expansion of the Abraham Accords — demanding that Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, and Jordan sign the Israel normalization agreements as a precondition of the broader peace framework. The announcement, made via a Truth Social post, transforms what began as a war-ending ceasefire negotiation into potentially the most consequential Middle East realignment in a generation.
What Trump Said: 'Mandatory' Normalization With Israel
Trump said it should be mandatory for countries including Qatar, Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, and Turkey to join the Abraham Accords en masse as part of an effort to reach a deal with Iran. He said he spoke on Saturday to leaders of those countries, as well as Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, which has already signed the accords — a set of agreements to normalize relations with Israel.
"I stated 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 wrote in a Truth Social post on Monday. Trump also said this expansion "should start with the immediate signing by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and everybody else should follow suit. If they don't, they should not be part of this Deal — in that it shows bad intention."
"By copy of this TRUTH, I am asking my Representatives to begin, and successfully complete, the process of signing these Countries into the already Historic Abraham Accords," Trump posted, adding that Saudi Arabia and Qatar should be the first to ink the deal.
The Saturday Call: What Happened Before the Post
On Saturday, Trump held a phone call with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, and Bahrain to discuss the emerging deal with Iran. Trump told the leaders that after the war with Iran ends, he expects all of them who are still not part of the Abraham Accords or don't have peace agreements with Israel to join and normalize relations with the Jewish state, according to two U.S. officials.
Leaders including UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed — who has had a more hawkish view on the Iran war — said they support the emerging peace deal. Trump is aiming mostly at a historic Saudi-Israeli peace agreement, but the current political climate in the region and the upcoming Israeli election make any near-term breakthrough extremely difficult.
What the Abraham Accords Are — and Why Saudi Arabia Is the Prize
The Abraham Accords were the landmark US-brokered normalization agreements launched during Trump's first term in 2020, under which the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan established formal diplomatic relations with Israel — the first Arab-Israeli peace agreements since Jordan's treaty in 1994. Egypt and Jordan already signed peace deals with Israel in 1979 and 1994, respectively, while Turkey and Israel have diplomatic relations, although ties are severely strained.
The crown jewel of any Abraham Accords expansion has always been Saudi Arabia — the most powerful Sunni Muslim state and the custodian of Islam's two holiest sites. Significant headwinds remain, including Saudi Arabia's longstanding insistence that there needs to be a credible path to a Palestinian state before it normalises commercial and diplomatic ties with Israel. Trump's framing of Abraham Accords membership as "mandatory" for peace deal participation appears designed to neutralise that objection by embedding the requirement within a broader regional security architecture that Riyadh cannot afford to be excluded from.
The Iran and Pakistan Dimensions
Particularly striking is Trump's inclusion of Pakistan — a nuclear-armed, majority-Muslim state that has historically maintained no formal ties with Israel and played a critical role as ceasefire mediator between Washington and Tehran through the Islamabad Declaration framework. Demanding Pakistan join the Abraham Accords as a condition of the Iran deal represents a dramatic expansion of the normalization agenda well beyond the Arab world.
Trump also said those countries would be "honored" to have Iran as part of the accords once a deal to end the war is reached, and confirmed that negotiations with Iran were "proceeding nicely" but gave no indication a deal was imminent. The vision Trump is sketching — one in which Iran itself eventually joins an expanded normalization framework with Israel — would represent one of the most extraordinary diplomatic reversals in modern history.
For comprehensive background on the Abraham Accords, their legal frameworks, and the current status of US-brokered Middle East normalization efforts, the U.S. Department of State's official Abraham Accords page provides the most authoritative documentation and ongoing updates on the initiative.
What This Means for the Middle East
If Trump's gambit succeeds — even partially — the geopolitical map of the Middle East could shift dramatically. A Saudi-Israel normalization agreement alone would reshape the regional balance of power, potentially accelerating economic integration across the Gulf and creating new security architecture to contain Iranian influence. However, analysts caution that linking the Abraham Accords to the Iran war peace deal introduces enormous new complexity into already delicate negotiations — and risks derailing both initiatives if any one party refuses the terms.
The inclusion of Israel's right to self-defence as a non-negotiable element, confirmed by Secretary of State Rubio ("Israel always has the right to protect itself"), and the conspicuous absence of any mention of Israel in Trump's lengthy Truth Social post, suggests the diplomatic choreography is still being carefully managed to avoid triggering a domestic political crisis in any of the participating states.