The Trump administration is expecting Syria to be one of the next countries to join the Abraham Accords, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday.
"The president is certainly hopeful that more countries in the region will sign on to the Abraham Accords," Leavitt said.
"When the president [Trump] met with the new president of Syria [Ahmed al-Sharaa] that was one of the requests that [Trump] made; for Syria to sign on to the Abraham Accords," she said.
"We want to see a long withstanding endurable peace in the Middle East and that's the way to do it," she noted.
"I don't have a timeline for you but this administration wants to see that happen and our partners in the region should know that," she concluded.
The Abraham Accords were a development in the Middle East during US President Donald Trump's first term in office in 2020, when the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan agreed to normalize relations with Israel.
The Trump administration's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff hinted that there are upcoming developments on more countries joining the Abraham Accords during a Wednesday interview with CNBC.
There will be "big announcements on countries that are coming into the Abraham Accords," Witkoff said.
"One of the president's key objectives is that the Abraham Accords be expanded," he told CNBC.
"We are hoping for normalization across an array of countries that people never would have contemplated would come in, so we are excited for that prospect; it will also be a stabilizer in the Middle East," Witkoff added.
Sharaa has made previous hints about joining Abraham Accords
Sharaa told US Representative Cory Mills in April that Syria was willing to join the Abraham Accords under the correct conditions.
Sharaa did not interfere in the Israeli operation in Iran for several reasons, most prominent of them is that the strikes benefited his newly formed regime, University of Haifa Professor Amatzia Baram argued in an interview with Maariv, published Thursday.
When Israeli planes crossed Iranian skies for 12 days through Syria, Tehran closely monitored the operation, as did the office of Ahmed al-Sharaa, the Syrian leader, in Damascus. According to Baram, the conclusions drawn by the Syrian leader could help stabilize our northern border for the years to come.
"If I were in al-Sharaa's place, I would tell my people that even if I could make it difficult for the Israel Air Force, I have no interest in doing so," Baram said, explaining the new Syrian thinking. "I have an interest in the Israelis attacking Iran as much as possible."
The Syrian interest is clear: Any blow to Iran weakens the largest strategic rival of the new regime in Damascus. "Every blow to Iran is pure benefit to al-Sharaa's regime," Baram asserted, explaining why the Syrians would not interfere with the Israeli operation, even if they had the capability to do so.
According to Baram, al-Sharaa is "quietly grateful to us for what we've done. The Iranians are looking for a way to get rid of him and return Syria to their sphere of influence. He knows this, and he understands that now it will be more difficult for them to do so." Moreover, the Israeli operation showed al-Sharaa that Israel effectively deters both the Shiite militias in Iraq and Hezbollah, two of his natural enemies.
Maya Cohen contributed to this report