United States President Donald Trump has called on all countries in the Middle East to forge formal relations with Israel, despite the ongoing Israeli atrocities in Gaza. Trump’s call on Thursday comes amid a growing international push to recognise a Palestinian state. “Now that the nuclear arsenal being ‘created’ by Iran has been totally OBLITERATED, it is very important to me that all Middle Eastern Countries join the Abraham Accords,” the US president wrote. “This will insure [sic] PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Trump’s administration has not presented evidence that Iran was weaponising its nuclear programme or building a nuclear arsenal, as the president has claimed. During his first term in 2020, Trump secured a series of deals, known as the Abraham Accords, to establish official diplomatic ties between Israel and several Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco. But US efforts to expand the agreements – with focus on Saudi Arabia – over the past years have failed.
The Abraham Accords fostered trade and security ties between the countries involved, but they failed to end or mitigate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel has continued to build and expand illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, and it has destroyed most of Gaza, killing more than 61,000 people as it imposes a starvation crisis on the territory. The war on Gaza, which Riyadh has decried as a genocide, further complicated the push to normalise relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
When he visited the Gulf region in May, Trump appeared to de-emphasise Arab-Israeli normalisation. He said it is his “dream” for Saudi Arabia to establish official ties with Israel, but he wants the kingdom to do it on its “own time”. It’s not clear what sparked Trump’s renewed call for Arab-Israeli normalisation. But his statement coincides with an Arab-backed international push to recognise the state of Palestine, which Washington has rejected.
Washington provides Israel with billions of dollars in military aid annually, assistance that significantly increased following the start of the war on Gaza in October 2023. Earlier this week, Trump suggested that he would not block Israel’s plan to expand its ground military operations to all of Gaza – a move that could compound the suffering of Palestinians who have been repeatedly displaced throughout the war. “That’s going to be pretty much up to Israel,” the US president said when asked about the Israeli plan.
The international community has expressed concern over the escalating violence and humanitarian crisis in Gaza. A recent poll found that a majority of people in several countries, including the UK and US, support ending arms sales to Israel due to the ongoing conflict in Gaza. The poll shows support for the private sector and states to take action.