Hopes for an accord in recent days were dealt another blow when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “crush” Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iran has demanded that any peace accord apply to the fighting in Lebanon as well.
Trump also said in a social media post he expected Iran to hand over its enriched uranium to the United States to be destroyed, or have it destroyed in Iran with an international witness.
“The Enriched Uranium (Nuclear Dust!) will either be immediately turned over to the United States to be brought home and destroyed or, preferably, in conjunction and coordination with the Islamic Republic of Iran, destroyed in place or, at another acceptable location, with the Atomic Energy Commission, or its equivalent, being witness to this process and event,” Trump wrote.
It was not clear whether he meant this is part of an emerging accord with Iran.
The Atomic Energy Commission that Trump cited was abolished in 1974 and its functions were divided between two successor bodies.
Earlier Monday, Trump said it should be mandatory for Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey, Bahrain and Jordan to sign up to the Abraham Accords, a set of agreements brokered in 2020 with nations historically hostile to Israel, as part of a peace deal with Iran.
Trump said he had spoken to the leaders of those countries Saturday about efforts to end the war with Iran. Bahrain and the UAE have already signed the accords, along with Morocco and Sudan.
US and Iranian forces have observed a ceasefire since Apr 8 while diplomats push for a negotiated settlement, although Iran has maintained controls on Gulf shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the US Navy has sought to blockade Iran’s ports.
While the Abraham Accords were welcomed by some, they remain deeply unpopular in many parts of the Middle East – in part because they fail to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Gulf heavyweights like Saudi Arabia and Qatar have said they will never normalise ties with Israel unless an independent Palestinian state is created.
“GOING CRAZY”
Anna Jacobs of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington said Trump’s latest demand added to the disaster that has been the war on all fronts for Gulf nations.
“The national security of the Gulf states has been threatened more than ever before because of President Trump’s reckless decisions, and he expects Arab states to thank him and to normalise relations with Israel, which they will not do at this stage,” she said.
“These expectations and assumptions from this US administration shows how little they understand the Middle East.”