--- title: 'Extortionist’ Peace: Trump’s Abraham Accords Gambit Exposes American Coercion' url: 'https://thediplomaticinsight.com/extortionist-peace-trump-abraham-accords-gambit/' author: 'Muhammad Mahad Samija' date: '2026-05-28T11:00:05+05:00' categories: - 'Feature' - 'Featured' --- # Extortionist’ Peace: Trump’s Abraham Accords Gambit Exposes American Coercion The leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain were caught off guard by the demand from Donald Trump for them to normalize relations with Israel in return for a ceasefire agreement to end the war between US–Israel and Iran, especially the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Qatar, who have no formal diplomatic relations with Israel. Then there was “silence on the line,” said a US official to* Axios*, “and Trump joked and asked them if they are still there.” There was no diplomatic awkwardness in that silence. It was the sound of several sovereign states processing the ultimatum dressed as an invitation. Trump’s knee-jerk response to the weight of his statement, the deflection, was the joke that could not mask the fact that what was being demanded: recognize a state engaging in ethnic cleansing, an active genocide, amidst ongoing illegitimate war of aggression in Iran, Gaza, and Lebanon. Call it ‘diplomacy’ if you want, the structure is undoubtedly coercive. Since then, Trump has made his wish explicit, posting on social media that it is “mandatory” that these countries join the Abraham Accords simultaneously, suggesting that those who refuse should not be included in any broader Iran deal. It’s the conditionality that matters. Israel’s diplomatic legitimacy is being used as hostage to peace in the Gulf, and the very states that made the peace process work in the first place, are the ones who are being squeezed. Washington and Tehran have held indirect talks in the presence of Pakistan and under the auspices of Qatar, which are based on Iran’s 14-point proposal for a memorandum for a peace deal to end the war between the United States and Iran. Secretary of State Marco Rubio labeled Pakistan as the “primary mediator,” and said the U.S. is “in constant communication” with the Pakistani military leadership.” **Read More: [Iran Says Progress Made with US, But Deal Not Imminent](https://thediplomaticinsight.com/iran-says-progress-made-with-us-but-deal-not-imminent/)** Pakistan and Qatar are not peripheral actors in this process; they are the structure of it. They built the diplomatic framework that made Trump have a deal to announce, a legacy to take ownership of, and a call to make. Now, after using these states as the instruments of his diplomacy, he goes back to them and demands: pay the price of Israel’s recognition. This is coercive in the most literal terms. It seeks to appeal to the very people the United States needs to co-operate with, at a time when they are most useful for co-operation and makes the peace that they are trying to bring about contingent on an unrelated political step that would have to be paid for dearly on their own home turf. Protection rackets have been outfitted in the language of historic opportunity previously. The model was the Abraham Accords: UAE and Bahrain normalized in 2020 in return for American arms deals and strategic guarantees with Palestinians getting nothing and losing everything. Let us be exact on what Trump is asking these states to recognize. The Netanyahu government opposes a two-state solution and is currently waging an illegal war of aggression against Iran, a genocide in Gaza, and apparently in Lebanon, as well, with hundreds of Jewish settlements already built on occupied land. Netanyahu himself, apparently in seriousness, made a proposal that Saudi Arabia could establish a Palestinian state within its vast territory, which was rebuked by the Saudi Foreign Ministry as Israel’s “extremist mindset” which failed to grasp what Palestine means for the Palestinians. This is the government Trump wants to be recognized. This is the state he desires Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar to officially embrace as a peace dividend. All of these states, each of them, have already refused, and they’ve said it clearly. Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said that recognition is tied to the establishment of a Palestinian state, that normalization talks can only begin when conflict in Gaza ends, and suffering of the Palestinians must stop before any credible steps towards diplomatic normalization. The Saudi Foreign Ministry has called this “firm and unwavering” and explicitly “non-negotiable and not subject to compromises”. Pakistan’s official position is that it will never recognize Israel unless a just settlement of the Palestine issue is reached to the satisfaction of the Palestinian people. Defense Minister Khawaja Asif, when directly pressed, said that he does not “see this option even being considered.” These are not rhetorical positions taken for public consumption while real compromises are worked out in the back channels. They are an expression of domestic political realities in societies where Palestine is a moral issue and not a strategic variable, and they are an expression of principle consistently taken in decades, and government after government. Asma Shirazi, a Pakistan journalist and columnist, has pointed out that Pakistan’s stance on Israel is “longstanding, principled, and constitutionally rooted” and that Pakistan is not “under any obligation to sign the Abraham Accords framework just on the pretext” of an Iran deal. Trump’s narratives portray Arab and Muslim countries’ recognition of Israel as a demand which American pressure and strategic incentives can extract; precisely the demand which demands bargain rather than outright rejection. This is the logic which led to the Abraham Accords, and it is one that has now been decisively overpowered by events. One of Hamas’s stated objectives on October 7, 2023, was to undermine the Saudi–Israeli normalization deal; which remained successful, forcing Saudi Arabia to impose stricter requirements and creating unprecedented public sympathy with Palestinians throughout the Arab world in particular, and in the broader Muslim world in general. The followed-on war, the horrific destruction visited upon Gaza and Lebanon, and horrendous decapitation of Iranian Leadership which precipitated the 2026 escalation, none of it has produced an environment making normalization with Israel more comfortable, more defensible, more explainable to the populations these governments serve. It has given rise to the reverse. But here’s Trump, at this very moment, insisting that the moment is historic for Muslim-majority countries. The consequences of capitulation are too grave to be mentioned. If any of these states were to concede, if the prospect of an end to the Strait of Hormuz crisis, the return of energy markets, and an end to American diplomatic pressure was enough to gain normalization, then the precondition for Palestinian statehood would disappear. It would become, officially and actually, an expended bargaining chip. Then, any subsequent American administration will cite the precedent that Muslim-majority countries renounce the cause of Palestine in favor of a cease-fire in another man’s battle, facilitated through their own diplomatic work. It would mark the biggest setback in Palestinian self-determination since the Nakba, not by Israel’s military power but by America’s coercion applied at the point of maximum leverage. **Read More: [Pakistan Not Joining Abraham Accords, FO Reiterates Palestine Position](https://thediplomaticinsight.com/pakistan-not-joining-abraham-accords-fo/)** Pakistan’s efforts in the mediation stand as the most convincing attempt of a diplomatic agency of Pakistan in years. That trust is built upon the confidence of Washington and Tehran, that they trust you and that your words are respected. Normalizing under American pressure, amid a war in the making, co-authored by Israel, would not strengthen that credibility. It would blow it up. The same goes for Qatar, which has been the venue for the negotiation, the channel for diplomacy, and as well a host of American military infrastructure, a delicate balancing act and one whose worth is all in Qatar’s being perceived as independent and unsentimental in its judgment. Trump wrote “it may be possible that one or two have reason for not doing so, and that it will be accepted” – leaving the space for claiming a partial victory, while utilizing the holdouts to pressure the others. This is the wedge approach. Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar have to pull themselves together and not allow the pressure to be on others, while negotiating for different packages. It was the right thing to be silent on that call. The response must not be private hedging or nervous assurances to American envoys. It must be what these states have already declared in public: Justice for Palestine is the precondition of peace in the Middle East. This will not change with any ceasefire, arms deal, strategic architecture, and under any pressure. Extortioner’s peace is no peace. It is the purchase of silence at the cost of conscience, and when the bill arrives, it will be paid entirely by the Palestinian people.       **The views presented in this article are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Diplomatic Insight.*