Kazakhstan says will join Abraham Accords

• Kazakhstan announced it will join the US-brokered Abraham Accords, with the formal intent to be finalized during a call between its president, President Trump, and the ‘Israeli’ Prime Minister.
• The Central Asian nation, which already has diplomatic ties with ‘Israel’, views the move as furthering its foreign policy and supporting regional stability.

Kazakhstan announced Thursday that it will join the Abraham Accords, the 2020 initiative that saw several Arab nations normalize diplomatic relations with ‘Israel’.

Unlike previous signatories, the Central Asian nation already maintains full diplomatic ties with ‘Israel’.

In a statement, the Kazakh government said, "Our expected accession to the Abraham Accords represents a natural and logical continuation of Kazakhstan’s foreign policy path based on dialogue, mutual respect, and regional stability."

Timing Follows US Summit

The announcement follows information reported by the news website Axios and confirmed by a US official that Kazakhstan was seeking to deepen its relationship with ‘Israel’.

Kazakhstan, along with other Central Asian states, participated in a summit late Thursday with US President Donald Trump, who has made the Abraham Accords process a diplomatic priority.

Trump had stated Wednesday, "We have a lot of people joining the Abraham Accords now, and we hope to have Saudi Arabia very soon."

The president is also pressuring Syria, whose leader Ahmed al-Sharaa he will meet Monday, to join the initiative.

Prior to the meeting, Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev Tokayev contacted the White House to express interest in accession. The two leaders will include ‘Israeli’ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu via a call to formalize the intent, said Axios in a report.

A senior US official described the step as revitalizing the accords as a desirable alliance for cooperation between ‘Israel’ and the broader Arab and Muslim world.

Another official noted: "This is going to show that the Abraham Accords is a club that many countries want to be a member of and it will be a step for turning the page on the war in Gaza and moving forward towards more peace and cooperation in the region."

Background on the Accords

The 2020 Abraham Accords established normalized relations between ‘Israel’ and the Arab nations of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan.

However, several key nations, notably Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Lebanon, have refused to join.

Saudi Arabia was engaged in talks with the US regarding normalization with ‘Israel’ but pulled back following the outbreak of the assault on the Gaza Strip

Saudi Arabia maintains that it cannot normalize relations without progress toward establishing an independent Palestinian state, a prospect that ‘Israeli’ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long opposed.

For Kazakhstan, the move coincides with a new US pact on critical minerals.