Trump’s Hail Mary on Abraham Accords Falls Flat

President Trump’s surprise demand for Gulf and Arab countries to normalize ties with Israel as part of Iran peace talks has run into a complicated reality in the Middle East.

…

JINSA Distinguished Fellow Yaakov Amidror, a retired major general with the Israel Defense Forces and former national security adviser to Netanyahu, described Qatar as an “enemy of Israel.” 

“Qatar should not be legitimized, it’s an enemy of Israel, it’s a supporter of terrorists. … It is a country that should not have any position to determine the future of the Middle East,” he said during a JINSA panel discussion Monday. 

…

Stephen Rademaker, a senior adviser with JINSA, said he was “frankly confused” when the president added joining the Abraham Accords as a demand of the negotiations with Iran.

“It’s fundamentally a bilateral negotiation between the United States and Iran. Why other countries in the region would feel that they needed to join the Abraham Accords as a result of a bilateral U.S.-Iran deal — It would be nice if they did,” he said during a panel discussion Monday.

…

Read the full article in the Hill.