With Saudi Arabia on sidelines, Trump looks to widen Abraham Accords circle
A senior Trump administration official says to expect additional Abraham Accords signatories in the coming months.
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WASHINGTON — As Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman heads to Washington next week, looming large over the visit will be President Donald Trump’s quest to fold the kingdom into the Abraham Accords.
Speaking in Riyadh in May, Trump said it was his “dream” for Saudi Arabia to join the normalization pact that he brokered in his first term, before acknowledging the Gulf powerhouse would do so in its “own time.”
Six months later, he predicted a Saudi-Israel deal would happen “very soon.” Yet there is no indication that the Arab world’s most powerful country is close to formally recognizing the existence of Israel — a decision that would likely encourage other Arab and Muslim-majority countries to strike their own normalization deals with the Jewish state.
