The United States is hopeful that Syria will be among a number of further Arab countries to join the Abraham Accords in the coming period, with the White House Press Secretary confirming that Donald Trump has spoken to his Syrian counterpart on the subject.
In response to a question on Thursday, Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Donald Trump “is certainly hopeful that more countries in the region will sign on to the Abraham Accords…we want to see a long, endurable peace in the Middle East and that’s the way to do it.”
She added that when Donald Trump had met with the new President of Syria, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, “that was one of the requests that he made, for Syria to sign on to the Abraham Accords. I don’t have a timeline for you, but this administration wants to see that happen and our partners in the region should know that.”
The Abraham Accords, signed in 2020 between Israel, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates and later joined by Morocco and Sudan, were the most significant foreign policy success of the first Trump administration, marking the first normalisation between Israel and Arab countries for decades.
The downfall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December last year has led to stronger ties between the United States and the new Syrian government, with America lifting sanctions on Syria last month.
Meanwhile, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has officially denied elements of a story published by Israeli paper Israel Hayom. The paper claimed that on a call earlier this week, Trump and Netanyahu agreed a series of wide-ranging steps to end the war and Gaza and bring peace to the wider region. The paper claimed that, apart from an understanding that both Saudi Arabi and Syria would soon establish diplomatic ties with Israel, the two leaders had agreed that four Arab countries, including Egypt and the UAE, would jointly govern the Gaza Strip, and that the terrorist organisation’s leaders would be exiled and all hostages freed. Israel Hayom also reported that with regards to the West Bank, Israel would support a two state solution if the Palestinian Authority carried out clear reforms – but the United States would recognise Israeli sovereignty over parts of Judaea and Samaria.
Netanyahu’s office responded strongly, saying that “Israel was not presented with the diplomatic proposal that is described in the article, and would not have agreed to it, anyway.”
