There are yet hopeful signs coming out of the Middle East. In Gaza, Hamas is still dug in like a tick on a dog, and the Israel Defense Forces are still occasionally playing Whack-a-Mole with them. But in another development, on Thursday, President Trump is expected to check another box on one of his primary foreign policy wins, when he welcomes Kazakhstan into the Abraham Accords.
President Trump on Thursday will welcome Kazakhstan into the Abraham Accords, the agreements centered around normalizing ties with Israel, two sources confirmed to The Hill.
Israel and Kazakhstan have had diplomatic relations since 1992, and it’s not clear what benefit Astana will get from joining the accords — although it provides a forum for greater cooperation on economic and security matters.
The Abraham Accords were established in 2020 and succeeded in brokering ties between Israel and Persian Gulf countries — like the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain — marking the first time in nearly 30 years that Israel had established new ties with one of its Muslim neighbors.
On Thursday evening, Trump is hosting the leaders of Kazakhstan and four other Central Asian countries, called the C5+1 summit. The forum was established in 2015, and this year marks the first visit to the White House. The meeting is expected to focus on deepening economic cooperation, developing rare earth mineral supply chains and strengthening security ties.
This is, as someone once said, a big freakin' deal.
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The Abraham Accords, first signed during President Trump's first term, call on the majority-Muslim states of the region to normalize their relations with Israel, to extend diplomatic recognition, and open the way for trade with the Jewish state. The signatories of the Accords also agree to allow direct flights from other signatory nations over their airspace, and encourage collaborations in areas ranging from healthcare to agriculture, although it's unclear as yet precisely how much of this kind of collaboration is going on.
Granted, having them just not shoot at one another would seem to be a significant step up.
So far, the nations that have signed onto the Accords include the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco. President Trump has (unsuccessfully as yet) been needling Saudi Arabia to sign on as well; that would be a major coup, as the Kingdom is one of the major players in the area. Having the Saudis on board could influence some of the Sunni nations to join as well.
President Trump has hinted, not very subtly, that he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for this effort, along with other peace deals he has helped broker in this second term.
But an Abraham Accords expansion touches on a key priority for Trump, who has long-argued the normalization agreements were worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize. He has chased adding Saudi Arabia to the group and is working on getting Syria to join.
During the four years Joe Biden was in office, this effort was ignored, which in itself tells one a lot about that administration's priorities - namely, that peace in the Middle East wasn't among them.
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