Trump Administration Eyes Azerbaijan for Abraham Accords Expansion, Sources Say
The Trump administration is reportedly in advanced talks to bring Azerbaijan into the Abraham Accords to deepen existing ties with Israel. A peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan is cited as a major precondition to any agreement, according to sources.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is in active discussions with Azerbaijan and potentially several Central Asian nations about joining the Abraham Accords, a strategic push aimed at deepening their existing ties with Israel, Reuters reported on Friday, citing five sources with knowledge of the matter.
The original Abraham Accords, brokered by the U.S. during Trump's first term in 2020 and 2021, saw four Muslim-majority countries—the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan—agree to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel.
However, an expansion to include Azerbaijan and its Central Asian allies would represent a different kind of diplomatic arrangement. According to the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss the private conversations, these nations already have longstanding relations with Israel. Therefore, their inclusion would be "largely symbolic," focusing on strengthening existing ties in key areas like trade and military cooperation.
The talks with Azerbaijan are reportedly among the "most structured and serious" of the potential expansions floated by the administration, with two sources suggesting a deal could be reached within months or even weeks.
Evidence of these high-level discussions includes a trip by Trump's special envoy for peace missions, Steve Witkoff, to Baku in March to meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, the report stated. A key aide, Aryeh Lightstone, met with Aliyev later in the spring, in part to discuss the accords, according to three of the sources.
As part of the process, Azerbaijani officials have reportedly contacted counterparts in Central Asia, including Kazakhstan, to gauge their interest in a broader expansion. It was not clear which other nations in the region—which also includes Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan—were contacted.
When asked for comment, the U.S. State Department did not discuss specific countries but affirmed that expanding the accords is a key objective for President Trump. "We are working to get more countries to join," a U.S. official told Reuters.
The Azerbaijani government declined to comment on the matter, while the White House, the Israeli foreign ministry, and the Kazakhstani embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.
This potential second round of expansion appears to be morphing the Abraham Accords into a broader mechanism designed to expand U.S. and Israeli soft power in a strategically vital region. Azerbaijan, situated between Russia and Iran, is a critical link in trade flows between Central Asia and the West.
The diplomatic push comes as the Trump administration's more ambitious goal of convincing Saudi Arabia to normalize ties with Israel has stalled amid the war in Gaza. According to the report, the soaring death toll in the conflict, which local health authorities place at over 60,000, has fueled Arab fury and complicated efforts to add more countries to the accords.
Significant obstacles remain, particularly the ongoing conflict between Azerbaijan and its neighbor, Armenia. According to three sources cited in the report, the Trump administration considers a peace deal between the two Caucasus nations a "precondition" for Azerbaijan to join the accords.
The two countries have been in conflict since the late 1980s over Nagorno-Karabakh. In 2023, Azerbaijan retook the region, prompting an exodus of about 100,000 ethnic Armenians. While both sides have expressed a desire for a formal peace treaty, progress has been slow.
Despite the challenges, U.S. officials have expressed optimism. President Trump himself told reporters in July, "Armenia and Azerbaijan, we worked magic there... And it's pretty close."
