The United States is pressuring countries to expand the list of normalization agreements with Israel
The administration of US President Donald Trump is actively discussing with Azerbaijan the possibility of including it and some of its allies in Central Asia in the Abraham Accords (normalization agreements), in the hope of strengthening their existing relations with Israel.
Under the Abraham Accords, concluded in 2020 and 2021 during Trump’s first term in office, four Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel following US mediation.
According to reports, Azerbaijan and all Central Asian countries already have long-standing relations with Israel, meaning that expanding the agreements to include these countries would be a largely symbolic step, and that the focus would be on strengthening relations in areas such as trade and military cooperation.
This expansion reflects “Trump’s openness to agreements that are less ambitious than his administration’s goal of convincing Saudi Arabia, a regional heavyweight in the Middle East, to establish relations with Israel, at a time when the war on the Gaza Strip is raging”.
The KSA has repeatedly stated, the report notes, that it’ll not recognize Israel without steps toward Israel’s recognition of a Palestinian state.
The rising death toll in Gaza and the famine in the Strip caused by the obstruction of aid and Israeli military operations have exacerbated Arab anger, resulting in the failure of efforts to add more Muslim-majority countries to the Abraham Accords.
Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy for peacemaking, traveled to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, last March to meet with President Ilham Aliyev.
According to Aryeh Lightstone, a top aide to Witkoff, met with Aliyev later in the spring to discuss the Abraham Accords.
As part of these discussions, Azerbaijani officials reached out to their counterparts in Central Asian countries, including neighboring Kazakhstan, to gauge their interest in expanding the Abraham Accords, according to the same sources.
It’s not yet clear though, which other countries in Central Asia, which includes Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan, have been contacted.
When asked for comment, the US State Department didn’t mention specific countries, but said that expanding the scope of the agreements is one of Trump’s main goals.
“We’re working to have more countries join,” a US official said.
