No progress on Abraham Accords as Trump heads to Saudi Arabia
US President Donald Trump arrives in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, the first of three Middle East nations he’ll be visiting this week. One place we know that Trump will not be visiting on this tour is Israel.
That is because of the ongoing conflict, with Israel’s war on Gaza. The White House is saying that there has not been any progress when it comes to ceasefire talks there.
Instead, what we know is that, given there has been no progress on those talks, there will also be no furthering of something that Trump has been pressing for, but that has so far eluded the president, and that is furthering of the Abraham Accords, or the normalisation of ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Because we know that with the ongoing conflict in Gaza, there is no creation of a Palestinian state, something that Saudi Arabia is demanding.
Trump's objectives are to secure major economic deals and make diplomatic progress on issues that affect the region, including a Gaza ceasefire and stalled Saudi Arabia-Israel normalisation talks.
Former Israeli commanders urge Trump to end Israel’s war on Gaza
A group representing more than 550 former senior officers in the Israeli military and intelligence agencies has written to Trump, asking him to use his visit to the region to “bring all our hostages back” and “end the war” in Gaza.
The Commanders for Israel Security also urged the US leader to “end the death and suffering of innocents, launch a Hamas-free ‘morning after’ for the Strip, and pave the way for a regional security coalition that includes Israel”.
By all accounts, “our approach to you represents the view of the vast majority of Israelis”, the group wrote.
The letter also said the war in Gaza “no longer serves Israel’s national objectives”, and that to most Israelis, Israel’s “justified objectives” to “end Hamas brutality” after October 7 “have long been achieved”.
The letter added, “If continued, the war, as well as the aggressive annexation policy on the West Bank, challenges regional stability. Most important, as you have correctly noted, it risks the lives of our hostages.”
