What Are the Abraham Accords, Now Part of Trump's Peace Plans?
President Donald Trump has said Arab states, as well as Pakistan and Turkey, should join the Abraham Accords as part of any peace deal with Iran, an apparent new addition to already slow-moving peace talks between the United States and the country that could further complicate prospects of quickly reaching an agreement.
Trump said in a Monday social media post that it should be “mandatory” for Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain to sign up to improve relations with Israel.
The UAE and Bahrain are already part of the Abraham Accords, which are U.S.-brokered agreements with Israel signed during Trump’s first term and widely considered his most significant foreign policy success. But for countries like regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia, joining the Abraham Accords is politically difficult because of its commitment to a Palestinian state, which was jeopardized by Israel’s war in Gaza from late 2023.
Trump said not all of the named countries would need to agree to join the Accords, “but most should be ready, willing, and able to make this Settlement with Iran a far more Historic Event than it would, otherwise, be.” The president said he had tasked U.S. officials with bringing these nations on board with the Abraham Accords.
U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally, said Trump’s statement was “simply brilliant and would result in the most significant change in the Middle East in thousands of years.”
But it took years of informal work to agree on the first set of Accords, and the U.S. has already indicated there’s still a way to go in peace talks that are already contending with incredibly complex issues, like Iran’s nuclear program and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz trade route.
The U.S. and Iran have not agreed on whether Tehran will be allowed to enrich uranium, and Iran has held off on loosening its grip on the strait, which it has effectively blocked for nearly three months to send global fuel prices soaring and global markets spinning.
What Are the Abraham Accords?
The Abraham Accords were a set of agreements signed during Trump’s first term that broadly normalized relations between Israel and several Arab countries. The name is a reference to Abraham, a key religious figure in Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
The UAE was the first to sign on, quickly followed by Bahrain. Although Sudan agreed to normalize relations with Israel in late 2020, the deteriorating situation in the country delayed the official signing of the agreement.
Morocco established ties with Israel in December 2020, and Kazakhstan joined the Abraham Accords in November 2025. However, Kazakhstan has long-standing ties with Israel, and the move was seen more as a way to curry favor with the U.S.
The initial deal was signed in 2020 at the White House, and the agreements were widely considered the crown jewels of Trump’s foreign policy during this administration.
Peace Deal to Come in ‘Days’
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that negotiating a deal with Iran could “take a few days,” pushing down any hopes of a rapid breakthrough as the U.S. resumed strikes on Iran late on Monday.
U.S. forces targeted missile launch sites and Iranian vessels trying to lay mines as part of “self-defense strikes” on southern Iran, Captain Tim Hawkins, a spokesperson for the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), told Newsweek.
U.S. media reported the U.S. sank two Iranian ships and Iran fired missiles at U.S. aircraft, citing unnamed U.S. officials. The U.S. then reportedly struck Iranian missile launchers close to the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas, close to the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a powerful branch of the Iranian military, said on Tuesday it would be “legitimate” for Iran to retaliate against violations of the ceasefire.
A ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran has been in place since early April. Sporadic exchanges of fire have punctuated the ceasefire period, but it’s unclear how these fresh strikes will affect the fragile truce.
The IRGC also said it had downed an MQ-9 Reaper drone, and fired on a F-35 fighter jet and a second drone in Iranian airspace.
Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi, a spokesperson for Iran’s military, separately said Tehran’s response to any new U.S. attacks would be “devastating,” according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
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This story was originally published May 26, 2026 at 10:36 AM.