U.S. Says Armenia and Azerbaijan Might Join Mid-East Peace Accords
The United States Special Envoy on Middle East, Steve Witkoff said that Armenia and Azerbaijan may join the U.S.-led initiative for Middle East Peace, known as the Abraham Accords.
Witkoff said in an interview with Beritbart News that Armenia and Azerbaijan being “very close” to a conflict settlement might be willing to join the accords.
The Abraham Accords are a series of normalization agreements between Israel and several Arab and Muslim nations. These agreements, brokered by the U.S. in 2020, aim to improve diplomatic, economic, and cultural ties between Israel and countries like the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan. The accords are seen as a significant step towards peace and cooperation in the Middle East.
“My prediction is that sometime relatively soon we’re going to see the potential for Lebanon and even Syria to normalize,” Witkoff said. “There have been strong positive reactions from them. It could happen with Libya. It could happen, and I’m talking about getting countries into the Abraham Peace Accords, it could happen with Azerbaijan and Armenia where we believe we’re very, very close to a settlement—a final settlement—of the conflicts in those countries. Both, I believe, might be willing to join the Abraham Peace Accords.”
According to the US special envoy, this is a very important initiative for President Donald Trump, and he “believes in it.”
“It promotes peace and stability generally in the region. We are out there, and I have a very, very good team. We work with the State Department very, very well which allows to take talent from there as needed in some of these conversations that we’re having. I’m really confident we’re going to have four or five, maybe six, countries enter the Abraham Peace Accords in the next couple of months and that will be a big signal to the world about President Trump’s foreign policy initiatives to promote peace and stability in the world,” Witkoff concluded.
Armenia’s Foreign Ministry did not confirm whether official Yerevan has sought to join the Abraham Accords, saying that Armenia is discussing many issues within its ongoing dialogue with the U.S.
“Both the established strategic partnership and the initiatives contributing to the establishment of peace in the region can, of course, provide new opportunities,” Armenia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Ani Badalyan told Azatutyun.am on Tuesday.
She did not respond to a question on whether Yerevan and Baku have discussed the possibility of joining the Abraham Accords or what the position of both sides are on the matter.
