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President Donald Trump said Sunday that other nations have suggested they would like to join the Abraham Accords amid recent Middle East shakeups that saw Israel and the U.S. inhibit Iran’s nuclear ambitions during what has been coined the “12-Day War.”
“We have some really great countries in there right now, and I think we’re going to start loading them up, because Iran was the primary problem…” the president told Maria Bartiromo during an exclusive “Sunday Morning Futures” interview this week.
“We had a period of time when I thought Iran would join the Abraham Accords along with everybody else, and, frankly, they would have been better off than where they are right now,” he continued.
TRUMP SAYS US WOULD STRIKE AGAIN IF IRAN REBUILDS NUCLEAR PROGRAM
The Abraham Accords, which sought to normalize relations between Israel, Sunni Gulf States and North African countries, was signed at the White House during the first Trump administration in September 2020.
US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff said last Wednesday that expanding the accords is one of the president’s “key objectives” and predicted that the administration will have some “big announcements” on countries coming into the accords soon.
Last week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt named Syria as one of the nations the president was keen to join, noting their historic meeting in Saudi Arabia earlier in the year.
“When the president met with the new president of Syria, that was one of the requests he made for Syria to sign onto the Abraham Accords,” Leavitt said.
TRUMP SAYS HE’LL DROP SANCTIONS ON SYRIA IN MOVE TO NORMALIZE RELATIONS
One of the largest Hebrew-language outlets, Israel Hayom, recently reported that Israeli National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi said the Middle Eastern countries most likely to join are Syria and Lebanon.
Trump responded to the prospect of Syria’s entry on Sunday.
“I don’t know [if they will join], but I did take off the sanctions at the request of some of the other countries in the area that are friends of ours. I took off the sanctions on Syria… the sanctions are biting. They’re very strong, and we have sanctions on Iran, too…”
Middle East expert Eugene Kontorovich, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., recently told Fox News Digital, “With Iran humiliated, Lebanon and Syria are quite realistic, but I would be impressed if it were soon, as in months. I do expect them to make peace with Israel and come into the Abraham Accords during Trump’s term.”
He added that “Syria could be possible simply because the new government has so much to gain, as it seeks legitimacy.”
Fox News’ Benjamin Weinthal contributed to this report.
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