SUMMARY

Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has said he is not in favour of Islamabad joining the Abraham Accords to normalise relations with Israel, after US President Donald Trump asked countries involved in the peace talks with Iran to sign on to the agreements.

Speaking during an interview on Samaa TV on Monday night, Asif said, "Personally, I don’t think we should join any such accord which clashes with our fundamental ideologies." He reiterated Pakistan’s long-standing position that it will not accept Israel until a Palestinian state is established on the pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Asif said Pakistan’s position on Israel remained unchanged. “We have a very clear stance that it is not acceptable to us,” he said.

The minister also raised the issue of credibility in any such arrangement. “How will you sit with those people whose word cannot be trusted for even a single day?” he asked. He also referred to Pakistan’s passport, which states that it is not valid for travel to Israel.

MUST READ | US-Iran ceasefire holding barely: US strikes missile sites, IRGC boats laying mines in Hormuz

Asif has been among the politicians in Pakistan who strongly oppose any move towards normalisation with Israel. Last month, he called Israel a “curse for humanity”, while accusing it of carrying out genocide in the region.

His remarks came as Trump pushed for wider participation in the Abraham Accords. Trump said on Monday that any agreement with Iran should include a requirement for several additional countries to join the Abraham Accords, the US-brokered agreements aimed at establishing diplomatic, economic and security ties between Israel and Arab nations.

In a social media post, Trump said that negotiations are "proceeding nicely" but tied any eventual agreement to expanded participation in the agreements first signed in 2020. 

Among the countries Donald Trump expects to sign up are Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkiye, Egypt and Jordan, while the UAE and Bahrain are already members of the Accords.

He further said that “after all the work done by the United States to try and pull this very complex puzzle together, it should be mandatory that all of these Countries, at a minimum, simultaneously sign onto the Abraham Accords.”

Published on: May 26, 2026 11:50 AM IST