Abraham Accords

The Abraham Accords are a set of agreements that established diplomatic normalization between Israel and several Arab states, beginning with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain. Announced in August and September 2020 and signed in Washington, D.C. on September 15, 2020, the Accords were mediated by the United States under President Donald Trump.

The UAE and Bahrain became the first two Gulf Arab countries (Arabic: دول الخليج العربية, duwal al-khalīj al-ʿarabiyyah; Khaleeji) to formally recognize Israel. The signing by the UAE and Bahrain also made them the first Arab League states to recognize Israel since Mauritania in 1995 and Jordan in 1994. In 1979, Egypt was the first Arab League state to recognize Israel.

In the months following the Accords, Sudan and Morocco also agreed to normalize relations with Israel. As of 2024, Sudan's agreement remains unratified. In July 2025, it was reported that the second Trump administration was seeking to expand the Accords to include Syria, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia, and in November, it was announced that Kazakhstan agreed to join. In December 2025, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expanded the Accords on his own initiative after Israel recognized Somaliland as an independent country, with Somaliland pledging to join the accords.

The Accords emerged amid growing unofficial cooperation between Israel and Sunni Arab states throughout the 2010s, driven by shared concerns about Iran. Efforts to build ties had become increasingly public by 2018, with visits by Israeli officials to Gulf states and the start of limited military and intelligence cooperation. In mid-2020, a normalization deal between Israel and the UAE was brokered in exchange for the suspension of Israeli plans to annex parts of the West Bank, as proposed in the Trump peace plan.

The agreements formalized economic, diplomatic, and security cooperation. In Morocco's case, normalization came with U.S. recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. For Sudan, it included removal from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism and access to international financial support. The Accords were presented in elaborate ceremonies and widely promoted by the Trump administration as a major diplomatic achievement.

Reactions in the Arab world were mixed. While governments expressed support, public opinion in many countries remained opposed, particularly due to the Accords' lack of progress on resolving the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Despite this, the Accords led to new initiatives in trade, defense, energy, technology, and cultural exchange. The name "Abraham Accords" was chosen to reflect the shared heritage of the Abrahamic religions—Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

In May 2026 president Trump suggested that some of Israel's neighbors should be required to sign the Abraham Accords and recognize Israel as part of a peace deal in the war with Iran.