Following U.S President Donald Trump’s demand for Muslim-majority countries like Bahrain, Jordan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan to join the Abraham Accords as a condition to end the ongoing war with Iran, Islamabad’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif’s statement that the deal was not acceptable to the country’s fundamental ideologies went viral on social media.
The Abraham Accords is an initiative by Trump, established in 2020, which seeks to normalise diplomatic, economic, and security relations between Israel and Arab nations. The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain became the first nations to sign the deal, followed by Morocco and Sudan in 2020.
Trump had specifically mentioned Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, who currently do not have any diplomatic ties with Israel, in his Truth Social platform, stating that it should be “mandatory” for Islamic countries to sign the accords in order to end the war in West Asia.
“It may be possible that one or two have a reason for not doing so, and that will be accepted, but most should be ready, willing, and able to make this Settlement with Iran a far more Historic Event that it would otherwise be,” he wrote.
Asif spoke at a television interview with Samaa TV, stating that signing the deal would be against the fundamental ideologies of Pakistan.
“How could Islamabad sit down with those people whose word cannot be trusted even for a single day? Personally, I don’t think we should join any such accord that clashes with our fundamental ideologies,” he said “We have a very clear stance that this is not acceptable to us.”
Pakistan has maintained its long-standing stance that the recognition of the state of Israel should also come with the establishment of a Palestinian state. Pakistan’s Father of the Nation Muhammad Ali Jinnah had explicitly rejected the UN partition of Palestine in 1947-48.
Asif’s statement drew a sharp reaction from Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who questioned Pakistan’s role as the mediator in the confict between the United States and Iran, calling it “problematic”.
He wrote on X, “It has been apparent to me for quite a while that Pakistan as a mediator is more than problematic. Their animosity towards Israel is long-standing.”
Graham had previously criticised Islamabad following reports that the country allegedly allowed Iranian military to use its bases during the war.
