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Since reports of possible confrontation with Iran When it first appeared, Israel’s representatives in the United States have been warning President Donald Trump not to sign the agreement.
Hawkish figures, including prominent senators, have opposed any deal that fails to remove or seriously weaken Iran’s political leadership and undermine its military capabilities.
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But after Trump floated the hope of many Arab states to establish permanent ties with Israel as part of the deal, some tough words softened their tone.
US Senator Lindsey Graham he was in the political group. On Saturday, Graham – a proponent of the war – warned that ending the conflict to reopen the Strait of Hormuz would be “dangerous” for Israel.
“It is important that we do this,” he wrote on social media post The Saturday he shared with a American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a lobbying group in the US.
Two days later, on Monday, Trump said it “should be legal” for countries including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Pakistan to establish diplomatic relations with Israel as part of the US-Iran deal.
Graham then praised the push, calling Trump’s administration “brilliant”.
“With Saudi Arabia and others like Pakistan making peace with Israel, the region will know a stability that President Trump never imagined.” he wrote on social media platform X.
Settlement with Israel, Graham added, “Eventually it will lead to regional cooperation, making the Middle East a place of economic opportunity and good instead of flour”.
The Abrahamic Covenant
Pro-Israel political commentator Mark Levin, who is close to Trump, also praised the sustained pressure on Monday after criticizing the potential Iran deal on Saturday.
“This would be a very big job!” Levin said, in response to Trump’s comments.
The change came on Monday, after Trump laid out his vision for expanding the Abraham Accords, a series of agreements between Israel and neighboring Arab countries.
“It should be acceptable for all these countries, at least, at the same time, to sign the Abraham Covenant,” he wrote on Social Truth, mentioning six countries, including Turkey and Egypt, that already have relations with Israel.
None of the countries Trump mentioned responded to his invitation. But for many years, many countries refused to change relations with Israel, especially after the genocide war in Gaza.
Saudi Arabia has repeatedly said that it stands for 2002 Arab Peace Initiativewhich calls for Israel to recognize a Palestinian state based on its 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Trump’s demands on Monday come as his administration struggles to negotiate a peace deal after the US and Israel declared war on Iran on February 28.
Critics have questioned Trump’s intentions in the war, which began with a proposal for regime change in Iran, ending the nuclear program, and limiting the country’s weapons. Later, another major goal became one of the main goals: to forcefully reopen the Strait of Hormuz, an important trade route through which more than 20 percent of the world’s oil is shipped.
It is not clear whether Trump has the option to order other countries in the region as part of the peace talks with Iran.
A longer-term pushback, however, could soften the blow for pro-Israel politicians who oppose an end to war with Iran.
Dania Thafer, head of the Gulf International Forum, said Trump is trying portraying the war, which has been a “strategic failure” as a victory for the US and Israel.
But the Gulf states – especially Saudi Arabia and Qatar – “don’t want” to settle at the moment, Thafer told Al Jazeera.
Beyond the Palestinian cause, Thafer explained, the Gulf countries – which have been victims of Iran during the war – do not want “a better control instead of being led by Israel”.
He added that continued pressure could undermine the US-Iran deal if Trump insists.
“How much of this is fictional and symbolic versus how much of this is actually the policy of the Trump administration? I think that’s the question that we don’t really know,” Thafer said.
Republican opposition
Since his first term as US president, Trump has made relations with Israel a priority.
In 2020, with the support of Trump, Israel signed the Abraham Accords with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, establishing bilateral relations.
But Trump and his second-term predecessor, former President Joe Biden, have failed to expand the alliance. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to reject the idea of a Palestine.
Israel has tended to separate its efforts to build regional cooperation from its own continuity work of Palestinian land and its brutality against the Palestinian people, which rights groups say amounts to apartheid.
Building stable relations with Arab and Muslim countries can strengthen Israel politically and economically, while alienating the Palestinians.
Trump faced frequent — albeit vague — criticism from his own Republican lawmakers over the weekend, as details of a peace deal with Iran leaked out.
His statement included the unfreezing of billions of dollars in Iran’s economy and an end to the war, with the promise of further negotiations.
Senator Ted Cruz, a staunch supporter of Trump’s Israel, said on Saturday that he was “concerned” by the reports of the deal.
“If the result of all that is supposed to be the Iranian government – which is run by Islamists who are chanting ‘death to America’ – now receives billions of dollars, can enrich uranium & produce nuclear weapons, and has control over the Strait of Hormuz, then the result would be a big mistake,” Cruz wrote in the post.
AIPAC also shared a statement by Republican Senator Roger Wicker criticizing the deal.
“The rumor of a 60-day ceasefire — I believe Iran will act in good faith — would be a disaster,” Wicker said. “Everything that has happened with Operation Epic Fury will be for naught!”
Mike Pompeo, who served as secretary of state during Trump’s first term, joined the opposition, drawing comparisons. rumored deal to the 2015 nuclear deal negotiated by Democratic officials.
He added that it was “not far from America First”, referring to Trump’s promise to put US interests above all else.
“It’s simple: Open the door. Stop Iran from getting money. Remove Iran’s power from threatening our allies in the region,” Pompeo said. “It’s late, let’s go.”
The Trump administration was quick to retaliate against the former ambassador, explaining that he was not informed.
“Mike Pompeo doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” White House Director Steven Cheung wrote on X.
“They should shut up and leave the real work to the experts. They haven’t read anything that’s going on, so how would they know.”
