Trump reportedly asked Muslim, Arab leaders to normalize ties with Israel if Iran deal reached

Request was met with silence on call with Middle Eastern leaders, Axios reports; it comes as Israeli officials said alarmed that emerging deal ‘does not serve Israel’s interest’

US President Donald Trump told the leaders of several Arab and Muslim countries in a Saturday phone call that he expects them to normalize relations with Israel if he reaches a deal to end the war with Iran, two US officials told the Axios news site on Sunday.

Trump also referenced the request in a social media post, and suggested that Iran could “perhaps” also establish relations with Israel. But the ask was reportedly met with silence from the Arab and Muslim leaders.

The request suggests that Trump is seeking to offer Israel an upside in the nascent deal to end the war, whose reported terms have raised alarm in Jerusalem. Channel 12 reported on Sunday that senior Israeli officials have warned, “As it seems, [the agreement] does not serve Israel’s interest.” Other officials have been quoted as calling it a bad deal and highly problematic for Israel.

Israeli officials are concerned that the deal, which will begin with a 60-day extension of the ceasefire, does not address Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs or its support for regional proxies, delaying negotiations on these and other key war goals.  According to the report, officials fear the deal would grant Iran time for economic and military recovery, after which “it will be hard for the Americans and us to go back and fight.”

In social media posts on Sunday, Trump said any deal he negotiated would be “good and proper,” and derided critics of the agreement as “losers.” He also said he told negotiators “not to rush into a deal.”

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio likewise told The New York Times that a nuclear deal could not be achieved “in 72 hours on the back of a napkin.”

Trump’s posts came after he held a phone call on the emerging deal with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, and Bahrain. In 2020, the UAE and Bahrain were among the countries to normalize relations with Israel under the Abraham Accords.

According to Axios, Trump told the leaders that he wants countries that don’t have ties with Israel to establish them. Of the countries represented on the call, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Pakistan do not have relations with Jerusalem. Trump, his predecessor Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have pursued a Saudi-Israeli accord for years.

In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump thanked “all of the countries of the Middle East for their support and cooperation” with the deal. He then wrote that the agreement “will be further enhanced and strengthened by their joining the Nations of the historic Abraham Accords and, who knows, perhaps the Islamic Republic of Iran would like to join, as well!”

The leaders all expressed support for the agreement to end the war, according to one of the officials who spoke with Axios. “They all said we are with you on this deal. And if it doesn’t work we will be with you too,” the official said.

But they reportedly reacted to the normalization request with silence.

“There was silence on the line and Trump joked and asked if they are still there,” one of the officials told Axios. The report also said Riyadh was unlikely to move forward with normalization before Israeli elections, which must take place by October.

One of the officials said Trump told the leaders he would call Netanyahu next, and that he hoped the Israeli prime minister would join a group call with the Muslim and Arab leaders in the future.

Trump also said his envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, would follow up on the issue within weeks, according to the report. Kushner was one of the architects of the Abraham Accords.

Several US senators from Trump’s Republican Party have criticized reports of the emerging deal, but on Sunday, one of them called Trump’s request for normalization with Israel “brilliant.”

“If in fact as a result of these negotiations to end the Iranian conflict, our Arab and Muslim allies in the region agreed to join the Abraham Accords, it would make this agreement one of the most consequential in the history of the Middle East,” Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina posted on X.

Graham then threatened the countries that haven’t established ties with Israel.

“If you refuse to go down this path as suggested by President Trump, it will have severe repercussions for our future relationships and make this peace proposal unacceptable,” he wrote. “Further, it would be seen by history as a major miscalculation.”