Why Pakistan Won’t Join the Abraham Accords | What's At Stake? | Global Lens

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]Pakistan has formally rejected the possibility of joining the Abraham Accords saying that it contradicts the country's fundamental ideologies. This comes after US President Donald Trump said countries including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Turkey, and Pakistan should sign the Accords as part of a larger deal to end the war in Iran. But what is the Abraham Accord? In simple terms, these are agreements brokered by Trump in 2020 to normalize ties between Arab or Muslim majority countries and Israel. The UAE and Bahrain signed first followed by Morocco and Sudan. However, Sudan did not ratify the move and has since been immersed in a civil war. The name of the Accord came from biblical figure Abraham which is considered an ancestor of both the Jews and Arabs. It was considered a major foreign policy win for Trump as it bypassed the traditional condition that Arab states would only normalize with Israel after a Palestinian state was established.

[00:01:01]Before this, Israel only had peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan. In 2025, Kazakhstan also joined the Abraham Accords. Nations part of the Accords agreed to address challenges through cooperation and dialogue and to boost trade, tourism, and defense cooperation.

[00:01:17]Israel and the UAE have since developed close economic and security ties including a free trade pact. Trump tried to rope in Saudi Arabia. However, the Gaza war resulted in Riyadh pushing for an independent Palestinian state before relations could be normalized. The topic even led to an awkward moment between Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in November 2025.

[00:01:41]Are you going to bring up the Abraham Accords in your discussion? I already brought them up. What did you say? I think I got a positive response. Would you like to respond? Yeah, so so Yeah, so so definitely we believe we believe having having a good relation with all of these new countries a good thing and we want to be part of the Abraham Accords, but we want also to be sure that we secure a clear path of two-state solution.

[00:02:05]So why is Pakistan against the Abraham Accords? Well, Pakistan's rejection is rooted in a mix of ideology, politics, religion, and foreign policy. Pakistan has long maintained that it will not recognize Israel until an independent Palestinian state is established on pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. The public overwhelmingly sympathizes with the Palestinian cause, and Pakistan is among the very few countries whose passport explicitly states it's not valid for travel to Israel. Trump's demand is also not something Pakistan has hoped for as payback after playing peacemaker between Iran and the US. It puts Prime Minister Sharif and Army Chief Asim Munir in a difficult spot, particularly since Sharif himself once called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the new Adolf Hitler.

[00:02:55]After Trump's social media post, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif questioned how Pakistan could engage with a country whose word, in his words, cannot be trusted even for a single day.