{"id":131327,"date":"2026-05-26T08:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T08:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/131327\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T08:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T08:04:11","slug":"bbc-expert-says-arab-leaders-stunned-by-trumps-iran-demands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/131327\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC Expert Says Arab Leaders Stunned By Trump’s Iran Demands"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump\u2019s <\/a>\u201ccoercive\u201d diplomatic efforts in the Middle East left Arab leaders in \u201cstunned silence\u201d, according to a BBC<\/a> expert.<\/p>\n

The US president is trying to broker peace in the region after he and Israeli forces attacked Iran at the end of February.<\/p>\n

Iranian troops then effectively closed the major oil waterway, the Strait of Hormuz, causing a global energy crisis.<\/p>\n

The two sides continue to fight even as they claim to be deep in the negotiation process over a possible ceasefire.<\/p>\n

Trump is now attempting to force more Arab countries to join the Abraham Accords, the 2020 US-brokered agreements which normalise relations between Israel and some neighbouring nations, as part of the peace process.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an absolutely remarkable moment,\u201d Tom Bateman, the BBC\u2019s State Department correspondent, told Radio 4\u2032s Today programme.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to reports of that call, Mr Trump had said I want you to join the Abraham Accords, to normalise relations with Israel, as part of this process.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo which there was said to have been a stunned silence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump has since told Egypt, Turkey and Pakistan to join the Accords or risk not being part of the new deal to open the Strait.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt like there was a partial threat involved in this sense of trying to pressure them, to get them involved in this diplomatic process with the Israelis,\u201d Bateman said. \u201cI think that is going to down again, with a kind of stunned silence.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the countries are yet to formally respond.<\/p>\n

The specialist also pointed out that the president is attempting to do two things at once.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump is trying to at the moment undo the problem that was caused by the American-Israeli attack on Iran \u2013 which is the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the global energy crisis \u2013 and use fixing that as a coercive attempt to get Arab countries and others like Pakistan to beef up their diplomatic ties with Israel,\u201d Bateman said.<\/p>\n

The reporter noted that it is clear Arab Gulf countries are \u201cextremely keen\u201d that this issue is resolved and de-escalated is avoided.<\/p>\n

He added that current negotiations with Iran are \u201clargely about re-opening the Strait of Hormuz and easing the global energy crisis\u201d.<\/p>\n

That means essentially \u201ckicking off into another couple of months the issue of Iran\u2019s nuclear programme and Iran\u2019s demands for the lifting of sanctions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The BBC\u2019s international editor Jeremy Bowen later told the Today programme Trump was engaging in \u201cfantasy deal-making\u201d.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to Commons People<\/a>, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week\u2019s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what\u2019s going on at Westminster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump\u2019s \u201ccoercive\u201d diplomatic efforts in the Middle East left Arab leaders in \u201cstunned silence\u201d, according to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[9062,38,34],"class_list":["post-131327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-bbc","tag-donald-trump","tag-iran"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116639843178620628","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}