New country to join Abraham Accords: US envoy

FLORIDA

The United States is set to announce later on Nov. 6 that a new country will join the so-called Abraham Accords, under which a number of nations have normalized ties with Israel, President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff said.

"I'm flying back to Washington tonight because we're going to announce, tonight, another country coming into the Abraham Accords," Witkoff said at the America Business Forum in Miami.

Asked which country was joining, Witkoff told interviewer Bret Baier of Fox News: "I don't know if it's out yet."

The Axios news site said the new country was the central Asian republic of Kazakhstan, which has had diplomatic relations with Israel for decades but is reportedly joining to help "reinvigorate" the accords.

Kazakhstan's president is one of five central Asian leaders meeting Trump at the White House on Nov. 6.

Under the Abraham Accords during Trump's first term as president, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco normalized ties with Israel in 2020.

Saudi Arabia had been in talks with the United States on normalizing ties with Israel, in what would be a historic milestone as the kingdom is home to Islam's two holiest sites.

But the Gulf kingdom stepped back on normalization after war broke out in Gaza following Hamas's attack on Israel in October 2023.

Saudi Arabia has long insisted it cannot normalize ties without progress toward an independent Palestinian state, a prospect long opposed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Trump said at the same forum in Miami on Nov. 5 that "we have a lot of people joining now the Abraham Accords and hopefully we are going to get Saudi Arabia very soon."

He then added jokingly to an audience which included the Saudi ambassador to the United States, Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud, "But I'm not saying that. I'm not."