Trump eyes bringing Azerbaijan, Central Asian nations into Abraham Accords, say sources

WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump’s administration is actively discussing with Azerbaijan the possibility of bringing that nation and some Central Asian allies into the Abraham Accords, hoping to deepen their existing ties with Israel, according to five sources with knowledge of the matter.

As part of

the Abraham Accords,

inked in 2020 and 2021 during Mr Trump’s first term in office, four Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalise diplomatic relations with Israel after US mediation.

Azerbaijan and every country in Central Asia, by contrast, already have longstanding relations with Israel, meaning that an expansion of the accords to include them would largely be symbolic, focusing on strengthening ties in areas such as trade and military cooperation, said the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Such an expansion would reflect Mr Trump’s openness to pacts that are less ambitious than his administration’s goal to convince regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia to restore ties with Israel while

war rages in Gaza.

The kingdom has repeatedly said it would not recognise Israel without steps towards Israeli recognition of a Palestinian state.

A soaring death toll in Gaza and starvation in the enclave due to blockage of aid and military operations by Israel have buoyed Arab fury, complicating efforts to add more Muslim-majority countries to the Abraham Accords.

The war in Gaza, where more than 60,000 people including tens of thousands of women and children have died according to local health authorities, has provoked global anger.

Canada, France and Britain have announced plans in recent days to

recognise an independent Palestine.

Another key sticking point is Azerbaijan’s conflict with its neighbour Armenia, since the Trump administration considers a peace deal between the two Caucasus nations as a precondition to join the Abraham Accords, three sources said.

While Trump officials have publicly floated several potential entrants into the accords, the talks centred on Azerbaijan are among the most structured and serious, the sources said. Two of the sources argued a deal could be reached within months or even weeks.

Mr Trump’s special envoy for peace missions, Mr Steve Witkoff, travelled to Azerbaijan’s capital Baku in March to meet Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

Mr Aryeh Lightstone, a key Witkoff aide, met Mr Aliyev later in the spring in part to discuss the Abraham Accords, three of the sources said.

As part of the discussions, Azerbaijani officials have contacted officials in Central Asian nations, including in nearby Kazakhstan, to gauge their interest in a broader Abraham Accords expansion, those sources said.

It was not clear which other countries in Central Asia – which includes Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan – were contacted. 

The State Department, when asked for comment, did not discuss specific countries, but said expanding the accords has been one of the key objectives of Mr Trump. “We are working to get more countries to join,” a US official said. 

The Azerbaijani government declined to comment.

The White House, the Israeli Foreign Ministry and the Kazakhstani Embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.

Any new accords would not modify the previous Abraham Accords deals signed by Israel.

Obstacles remain

The original Abraham Accords – inked between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan – were centred on restoration of ties.

The second round of expansion appears to be morphing into a broader mechanism designed to expand US and Israeli soft power.

Wedged between Russia to the north and Iran to the south, Azerbaijan occupies a critical link in trade flows between Central Asia and the West.

The Caucasus and Central Asia are also rich in natural resources, including oil and gas, prompting various major powers to compete for influence in the region.

Expanding the accords to nations that already have diplomatic relations with Israel may also be a means of delivering symbolic wins to Mr Trump, who is known to talk up even relatively small victories.

Two sources described the discussions involving Central Asia as embryonic – but the discussions with Azerbaijan as relatively advanced.

But challenges remain and there is no guarantee a deal will be reached, particularly with slow progress in talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The two countries, which both won independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, have been at loggerheads since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh – an Azerbaijani region that had a mostly ethnic-Armenian population – broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia.

In 2023, Azerbaijan retook Karabakh, prompting about

100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee

to Armenia. Both sides have since said they want to sign a treaty on a formal end to the conflict.

Primarily Christian Armenia and the US have close ties, and the Trump administration is wary of taking action that could upset the authorities in Yerevan.

Still, US officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Mr Trump himself, have argued that a peace deal between those two nations is near.

“Armenia and Azerbaijan, we worked magic there,” Mr Trump told reporters earlier in July. “And it’s pretty close.” REUTERS