Explained: What Are The Abraham Accords & Which Are All The Muslim Majority Countries Already Part of It?

US President Donald Trump has issued a fresh appeal to several Arab and Muslim-majority countries, urging them to sign up to the Abraham Accords - a US-brokered framework designed to normalise relations with Israel.

What Trump Said

In a lengthy post on his Truth Social platform, Trump declared he was "mandatorily requesting" that nations including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, Türkiye, Egypt and Jordan join the accords. He also suggested that Iran could be brought into the fold if it agreed to a deal with Washington, describing such a move as an "unparalleled World Coalition" that would make the Middle East "United, Powerful, and Economically Strong".

However, Pakistan has rejected the idea of joining the group."I don't think we should join any such accord that clashes with our fundamental ideologies. How will you sit down with those people whose word cannot be trusted even for a single day?" Samaa TV quoted Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif as saying.

Who Has Already Signed?

UAE and Bahrain were the first to sign the accords in 2020.

Morocco and Sudan later joined.

Kazakhstan formally entered in 2025, though it had recognised Israel decades earlier.

Israel remains the central partner in the agreements.

What About Egypt and Jordan?

Egypt and Jordan normalised relations with Israel long before the accords existed - Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994. However, neither country formally joined the Abraham Accords framework.

Why Do the Accords Matter?

The Abraham Accords marked a major diplomatic shift in the region. Traditionally, Arab states linked recognition of Israel to resolving the Palestinian question. The accords broke with that approach, instead focusing on:

• Trade and investment
• Defence and security cooperation
• Strategic alignment against Iran's regional influence
• This made them the most significant Arab-Israeli breakthrough since Egypt and Jordan's peace deals.

Current Members

The countries officially associated with the Abraham Accords today are:

• Israel
• United Arab Emirates
• Bahrain
• Morocco
• Sudan
• Kazakhstan

The Abraham Accords are a series of agreements through which Israel established open, formal relations with several Arab/Muslim‑majority countries starting in 2020, with strong US mediation under Donald Trump's administration.

What Are The Abraham Accords?

They broke with the older Arab League line that said "no normalization with Israel until the Palestinian issue is resolved," and instead prioritized strategic and economic cooperation first.

Who signed and when?

The process is not a single treaty but a cluster of declarations and bilateral deals:

September 2020:

• Israel-United Arab Emirates normalization agreement
• Israel-Bahrain normalization agreement

Both signed at the White House, in the presence of Trump.

Later in 2020-early 2021:

• Israel-Sudan normalization process
• Israel-Morocco normalization agreement

Before these, only Egypt (1979) and Jordan (1994) had full peace treaties with Israel. The Accords therefore marked the first new Arab states in about 25 years to openly recognize and normalize relations with Israel.

What do the Accords actually include?

There are two layers often referred to as "Abraham Accords":

The Abraham Accords Declaration

A political statement talking about:

• Peace, coexistence, and mutual respect among the "Abrahamic" religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam)
• Principles like interfaith dialogue, tolerance, and cooperation

Bilateral normalization agreements (Israel-UAE, Israel-Bahrain, Israel-Morocco, Israel-Sudan)

• These include practical steps such as:
• Establishing full diplomatic relations (embassies, ambassadors)
• Opening direct flights and airspace
• Agreements on trade, investment, tourism, technology, security, and scientific cooperation

In practice, the UAE-Israel track is the most developed, with significant trade, tourism, and tech collaboration emerging quickly after 2020.

Why did they happen?

Several strategic calculations pushed these states towards normalization:

Common threat perception of Iran: Israel and several Gulf/Arab governments see Iran's regional influence and nuclear programme as a major security challenge. Cooperation with Israel, plus closer alignment with Washington, was seen as useful to balance Iran.

Economic and technological interests: The signatories hoped to benefit from Israel's tech, cybersecurity, agriculture, water management, and defence sectors, and to access new trade, investment, and tourism flows.

US incentives:

• For the UAE and Bahrain, closer security/defence ties with Washington.
• For Sudan, movement off the US list of state sponsors of terrorism and economic relief.
• For Morocco, US recognition of its claim over Western Sahara was a major incentive.

Crucially, these deals reflected a shift: some Arab governments decided that their own security and economic priorities could no longer be indefinitely held hostage to the unresolved Palestinian question.

Impact on the Palestinian issue

This is the most controversial aspect.

Supporters say:

• Integrating Israel into the region could create better conditions and leverage for a future peace process.
• Economic development and reduced regional isolation might indirectly help Palestinians.

Critics (including Palestinian leadership) argue:

• The Accords sidestep the core conflict-occupation, settlements, and lack of Palestinian statehood.
• By normalizing with Israel without concrete concessions for Palestinians, Arab states weakened their own bargaining power on Palestine.

Most analyses agree that the Accords did not meaningfully advance a political solution for Palestinians, even if they changed regional alignments.

Why the name "Abraham"?

The name "Abraham Accords" refers to the patriarch Abraham (Ibrahim in Islam), who is central to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Using this name was meant to give the agreements a religious and civilizational framing: emphasizing shared heritage among the three Abrahamic faiths and projecting the deals as a new interfaith and intercultural bridge, not just a cold strategic alignment.

From the point of view of someone who follows geopolitics and elections: the Accords are best understood as a strategic realignment in West Asia-Arab states moving from a "Palestine-first" policy to a "state-interest-first" policy, especially vis‑à‑vis Iran, the US, and economic modernization.