'Not acceptable to us': Pakistan minister Khawaja Asif shoots down Donald Trump’s Abraham Accords call

Pakistan on Monday firmly rejected the possibility of joining the Abraham Accords after US President Donald Trump called on several Muslim-majority countries, including Pakistan, to normalise ties with Israel as part of a broader regional agreement linked to ongoing negotiations with Iran.Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said Islamabad would not support any agreement that contradicted the country’s “fundamental ideologies” and reiterated Pakistan’s long-standing refusal to recognise Israel without the establishment of a Palestinian state. “Personally, I don't think we should join any such accord that clashes with our fundamental ideologies,” Asif said during an interview with Pakistani broadcaster Samaa TV.Also read: Abraham Accords explained: Who signed, who didn't, and why it matters nowQuestioning the credibility of engagement with Israel, he added, “How will you sit down with those people whose word cannot be trusted even for a single day?”Reiterating Pakistan’s official position, the Defence Minister said: “We have a very clear stance that this is not acceptable to us.”Asif also referred to Pakistan’s passport policy regarding Israel and said, “And secondly, on our passports, we are the only country whose passports don't even include Israel's name.”The remarks came hours after Trump pushed for an expansion of the Abraham Accords as part of a wider diplomatic settlement tied to a possible US-Iran agreement.In a lengthy Truth Social post, Trump said negotiations with Iran were “proceeding nicely” and urged countries including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt and Jordan to join the accords.“Negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran are proceeding nicely! It will only be a Great Deal for all or, no Deal at all,” Trump wrote, warning that failure to reach an agreement could mean “Back to the Battlefront and shooting, but bigger and stronger than ever before.”Trump said Saudi Arabia and Qatar should immediately join the accords after a deal with Iran and suggested that Tehran itself could eventually become part of the framework if negotiations succeeded.According to Trump, the Abraham Accords had delivered a “Financial, Economic, and Social BOOM” to existing signatories, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan and Kazakhstan.“The Abraham Accords have been great for them, and will be even better for everybody, and bring true Power, Strength, and Peace to the Middle East,” he wrote.Trump also claimed he had discussed the proposal with several regional leaders, including Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah II.Calling the proposed arrangement potentially “the most important Deal” in the region’s history, Trump said he had instructed his representatives to begin expanding the accords to more nations.Pakistan, however, maintained that its position on Israel remained unchanged and tied any possible recognition to the creation of an independent Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.Asif, one of Pakistan’s strongest critics of Israel, has previously accused Israel of carrying out “genocide” in the region and described the country as a “curse for humanity.”The Abraham Accords are a series of United States-brokered diplomatic agreements launched in 2020 to normalise relations between Israel and several Arab and Muslim-majority nations.The accords were formally signed on September 15, 2020, during the first presidency of Donald Trump at the White House. The initial agreements involved Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, marking one of the biggest diplomatic shifts in West Asia in decades.The accords are named after Abraham, a patriarch revered in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and were presented as an attempt to promote coexistence, economic cooperation and regional stability between Israel and Arab states.Unlike earlier Arab policies that linked recognition of Israel to the creation of a Palestinian state, the Abraham Accords prioritised strategic, economic and security partnerships first, especially as concerns over Iran’s regional influence grew stronger.The agreements focused on expanding diplomatic ties, direct flights, trade, investment, tourism, defence cooperation, technology partnerships and intelligence sharing between participating countries.The accords were widely described as the biggest Arab-Israeli diplomatic breakthrough since Egypt recognised Israel in 1979 under the Camp David Accords and Jordan established formal ties with Israel in 1994.Israel is the central country in the Abraham Accords framework. The agreements allowed Israel to establish open diplomatic and economic ties with multiple Arab nations for the first time in decades.For Israel, the accords represented a major strategic victory because they weakened the long-standing Arab consensus that recognition of Israel would only happen after the establishment of a Palestinian state.The agreements also strengthened Israel’s regional position against Iran and expanded trade, tourism and defence cooperation across West Asia and North Africa.The United Arab Emirates became the first Gulf nation to sign the Abraham Accords in 2020.The UAE viewed the agreement as an opportunity to deepen economic ties with Israel, expand technological cooperation and strengthen security coordination, especially amid rising concerns about Iran’s regional activities.Since signing the accords, trade between the UAE and Israel has grown rapidly across sectors including defence, artificial intelligence, agriculture, energy and tourism.Bahrain signed the accords alongside the UAE in September 2020.Bahrain’s decision was heavily influenced by its close ties with Saudi Arabia and the United States, as well as shared regional security concerns regarding Iran.The agreement established diplomatic relations, direct economic cooperation and broader strategic coordination with Israel.Morocco joined the Abraham Accords in December 2020.In return, the United States recognised Morocco’s sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara region, a long-standing diplomatic objective for Rabat.Since normalisation, Morocco and Israel have expanded cooperation in trade, tourism, agriculture, intelligence sharing and military relations.Sudan agreed to join the Abraham Accords in late 2020 as part of a broader US-backed arrangement that also involved Sudan’s removal from Washington’s list of state sponsors of terrorism.However, Sudan’s political instability and subsequent civil conflict have slowed the full implementation of the agreement.Despite this, Sudan formally remains associated with the accords framework.Kazakhstan formally joined the Abraham Accords grouping in 2025, though it had already maintained diplomatic relations with Israel since the 1990s.Kazakhstan’s inclusion reflected attempts to expand the framework beyond Arab states and position the accords as a broader geopolitical and economic partnership network.Egypt became the first Arab country to recognise Israel after signing the 1979 Camp David Accords.The peace agreement fundamentally reshaped Middle Eastern geopolitics and remains one of the region’s most important diplomatic arrangements.Although Egypt is not technically part of the Abraham Accords, it is often discussed alongside them because it established relations with Israel decades earlier.Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994 and has maintained diplomatic relations since then.Jordan continues to play a key role in regional diplomacy, particularly regarding Jerusalem and Palestinian affairs.Like Egypt, Jordan is not an Abraham Accords signatory because its recognition of Israel predates the framework.Saudi Arabia remains the most important country yet to formally join the accords.While Saudi Arabia has quietly expanded unofficial contacts with Israel in recent years, Riyadh has repeatedly stated that formal recognition depends on a “clear and irreversible” path towards Palestinian statehood.The ongoing Gaza conflict and broader regional instability have complicated any immediate breakthrough.Pakistan has firmly rejected joining the Abraham Accords.Pakistan maintains that it cannot recognise Israel until an independent Palestinian state is created based on pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif recently stated: “We have a very clear stance that this is not acceptable to us.”Domestic political sensitivities and strong public support for Palestine continue shaping Islamabad’s position.Iran strongly opposes the Abraham Accords and views them as an attempt to isolate Tehran strategically.Iranian officials have repeatedly condemned Arab countries that normalised ties with Israel and continue backing regional groups opposed to Israeli influence in the region.Despite recent suggestions by Trump that Iran itself could eventually become part of the framework after a future agreement, Tehran has rejected the idea outright.