Former White House aide under Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, has claimed that more Muslim countries were considering joining the 2020 Abraham Accords to normalize relations with Israel. He alleged that as many as six countries were in Washington's sights by the time Trump left office.
Kushner, who was deeply involved in brokering the Abraham Accords between Israel on the one side and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan on the other, lamented that the current US administration failed to continue the efforts. He claimed that more could have been done to bring additional Muslim countries into the fold.
"I think the biggest disappointment so far is that more countries haven’t been brought into it. I think that there’s a lot more to build on. But I do hope that the current administration will focus on that and work to do that," Kushner said.
The former White House aide did not reveal which six countries were on deck to possibly join the trend for normalizing ties with Israel. He expressed confidence, however, that once all countries do this, the Arab-Israeli conflict will be over and "an era of prosperity and peacefulness" will begin in the region.
Not all of regional powers and entities agree with that statement, however, with Iran and the Palestinian Authority strongly condemning the Abraham Accords. They recalled that most Muslim states originally pledged not to normalize ties with Israel as long as its conflict with Palestinians continues and the issue of Palestinian statehood is unresolved.
No other Muslim states have joined the Abraham Accords since the end of Donald Trump's presidency, despite consistent rumors that Saudi Arabia was considering the move. Riyadh rejected the reports, but did quietly allow Israeli civilian planes to fly in its airspace following the diplomatic effort of the new administration.
The new president and his team have expressed support for the Abraham Accords and their idea, but reportedly objected to the means the Trump administration used to achieve the deal. Trump reportedly included selling F-35 jets to the UAE – a move that went against a long-term practice of keeping Israel the only state in the region with cutting-edge American weapons.
Trump also sided with Morocco's territorial claims of the disputed Western Sahara region in return for the country's decision to establish diplomatic ties with Israel. Equally, Washington agreed to remove Sudan from the list of state terrorism sponsors if it normalized relations with Tel Aviv.