As American and Iranian negotiators inch toward a deal to end months of conflict, President Donald Trump has dramatically raised the stakes, demanding that a clutch of Muslim-majority nations formally recognise Israel by joining the Abraham Accords as part of any final settlement.
For Pakistan, as it is for several others named by Trump on Monday, the demand is a wedge between Washington’s expectations and domestic political reality.
What Trump said
In a lengthy Truth Social post on Monday, Trump declared it “mandatory” that Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, and Jordan sign onto the Abraham Accords simultaneously as part of an Iran peace deal.
“It should start with the immediate signing by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and everybody else should follow suit,” he wrote, adding that countries that refuse “should not be part of this Deal in that it shows bad intention”.
The post came after a Saturday phone call Trump held with leaders from all eight countries, as per US-based news outlet Axios. The report said, citing two unnamed US officials, that the demand caught several heads of state off guard.
Also read | Trump floats Iran-US peace deal, but burning questions still remain: HT decodes
What Abraham Accords actually require
The Abraham Accords, brokered by Trump during his first term in 2020, are agreements under which Arab/Muslim countries formally recognised Israel and establish full diplomatic relations. The UAE and Bahrain were the first to sign, followed by Morocco and Sudan.
What Trump is now proposing is a mass expansion, even as these countries he named have consistently demanded a two-state solution with an independent Palestinian state existing alongside Israel in the future. Trump did not expressly mention Israel in his latest post, nor did he mention a future Palestine state or its occupied territories such as Gaza and the West Bank. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is a avowedly against any Palestinian state.
Israel a central question
Israel, which co-attacked Iran with the US starting the current conflict in February, has been a central issue in both the wars and the push for peace so far in Middle East/West Asia.
In March, the director of the US National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent, a Trump appointee, resigned in protest. In his resignation letter, Kent said, “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”
Israel has for years listed Iran as an existential threat to the Jewish state, and was publicly keen on an attack after its military actions in Gaza killed thousands and ended in a “reconstruction” deal negotiated by Trump and his UN-alternative Board of Peace.
What next, and what about Pakistan
Pakistan was one of the main signatories to that Board of Peace agreement. And it has been playing a mediating role in Iran too. Trump has repeatedly credited Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Pak Army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir with having brokered the truce.
Yet, of all the countries named by Trump, it’s Pakistan where the establishment finds itself in arguably the trickiest paradox. Pakistan has never recognised Israel in its 78-year history, a position tracing back to founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s explicit rejection of the UN partition of Palestine in 1947-48. Every Pakistani government, be it democratic, martial, or a mix, has since held that line publicly.
There’s been pressure to break from it; notably, after the original Abraham Accords were signed in 2020, then-PM Imran Khan, who is now in jail, said Washington had been pushing him. “Pakistan is under pressure from the US and other countries to normalise ties with Israel,” Khan told news outlets in 2021, “My conscience will never allow me to accept Israel, which is responsible for so many atrocities against the Palestinian people.”
Imran Khan’s successor Shehbaz Sharif agreed with him at least on this issue, no matter their being arch political enemies. Even before becoming PM, Shehbaz Sharif had called Netanyahu “the new Adolf Hitler” during Israel’s 2021 military actions in Gaza.
Addressing a Pakistan National Assembly session, Shehbaz as Opposition Leader urged the international community, particularly Muslim countries, to take action to protect the Palestinians from Israel’s aggression. He’d shared his speech on X, where it sits as of May 25.
Pakistan’s foreign minister Ishaq Dar, speaking after army chief Munir’s White House visit a few months ago, said, “We are not ready to recognise Israel until the two-state solution to the Palestine conflict is accepted. There is no change in our stated policy on the Palestine issue. Let it be clear to everyone that our seven-decades-long policy remains unchanged.”
In January this year, after Pakistan became one of the most prominent members of Trump’s Board of Peace for a Gaza truce, the country’s Foreign Office spokesman Tahir Andrabi again clarified, “It is a misconception that joining the Board of Peace is in any way connected to any Abraham Accords or any side draft to this issue. Pakistan’s positions remain unchanged and we will not become a party to the Abraham Accords.”
In Pakistani media, as recently as Sunday, unnamed Pakistani officials again dismissed suggestions linking Islamabad to the accords.
As for Iran, Pakistan has condemned the attacks by US and Israel, yet been Trump’s preferred mediator. At a White House briefing, Trump described Pakistani leaders as “incredible”, saying they had backed his Gaza peace plan “from the very beginning”. He had then called Munir, whom he has been treating as de facto leader of Pakistan, his “favorite field marshal”.
Where Saudi, others stand
Pakistan’s stated position on Israel — no recognition without a Palestinian state — mirrors that of fellow Muslim nation Saudi Arabia, with which it has a landmark defence agreement.
Of the eight Muslim countries Trump named, the UAE and Bahrain are already part of the accords, while Egypt and Jordan have formally recognised Israel for decades already.
The demand essentially falls on the remaining four, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, and Pakistan.
Pakistan’s neighbour India, as it emerged from the 1947 Partition that formed Pakistan, has for long recognised Israel but sought a two-state solution too. PM Narendra Modi has, however, faced criticism for his alleged preference for more proximity with Israel lately.
Trump is reported to have already pressed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on the Abraham Accords during an Oval Office meeting last November, and the meeting “got tense”.
In Turkey, a court there had indicted Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and 35 others officials for their role in the naval interception of a Gaza flotilla, while President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called Israel a “blood-stained genocide network”. Turkey did formally recognise Israel in 1949, making it the first Muslim-majority country to do so. That collapsed in 2010 after Israeli commandos raided a ship attempting to break the then Gaza blockade, killing nine Turkish activists. After a thaw in 2022, the Gaza war following the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, ended further prospects.
Qatar so far serves as a backchannel for Gaza negotiations, and that role depends on its relationship with Palestinian group Hamas.
Trump has even spoken of a possibility of Iran joining the Abraham Accords, though Tehran has shown no inclination.
