Trump's Ultimatum to the Middle East: Sign the Abraham Accords Now or Watch the Iran Deal Collapse
Trump publicly demands that Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan and other regional powers sign the Abraham Accords as a mandatory condition of any Iran nuclear deal or face a return to military confrontation.
President Donald Trump published a sweeping statement on social media Monday, declaring that any deal with Iran must be part of a broader regional agreement requiring Middle Eastern nations to join the Abraham Accords and recognize Israel, or there will be no deal at all.
"The negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran are going very well," Trump wrote. "It will either be a great deal for everyone, or there will be no deal at all, and we will be back to the battlefield and the shooting, but bigger and stronger than ever before, and nobody wants that."
Trump then made his core demand explicit, stating that following his Saturday discussions with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain, he had declared it a mandatory condition that all those countries sign the Abraham Accords simultaneously as part of any regional arrangement.
"This should start with the immediate signing by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and all others should follow," Trump wrote, adding that any country unwilling to do so "should not be part of this deal, because it shows bad faith."
Trump praised the Abraham Accords as a financial, economic and social success for the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan and Kazakhstan, noting that existing members never sought to leave even during the current period of conflict. He argued that expanded membership would bring "real power, strength and genuine peace to the Middle East for the first time in 5,000 years."
In a striking closing passage, Trump raised the possibility of Iran itself eventually joining the Accords. "Many of the great leaders mentioned above would consider it an honor, once our document is signed, to add the Islamic Republic of Iran as part of the Abraham Accords. Wow, that would be something special!"
Trump concluded by instructing his representatives to immediately begin preparing and finalizing the documents required to bring the named countries into the Accords, citing the post itself as a formal directive.