Witkoff hopes to expand Abraham Accords after Gaza truce, says Qatar a strong candidate
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
More from Trump envoy Witkoff’s Fox News interview:
Asked what he told the parties during the Gaza negotiations, Witkoff says he highlighted Trump’s threat of “all hell to pay” in the region if the hostages were not released by his January 20 inauguration.
Arab officials from mediating countries have told The Times of Israel that Witkoff’s role was essential in bringing the hostage deal across the finish line, particularly due to the pressure he placed on Netanyahu.
He notes that he was not involved in the crafting of the deal, whose framework was advanced by the Biden administration. “Our job was to speed up the process because it felt like it had bogged down… It doesn’t happen without the president,” Witkoff says.
The US envoy is very close to the president and was seated close to him during Monday’s inauguration. He was seen briefly speaking to former president Joe Biden at the end of the ceremony. Witkoff tells Fox News that he was thanking Biden for allowing him to work on the hostage deal, adding that the former president thanked him in response.
Witkoff speaks to his goal of expanding the Abraham Accords, insisting that all countries in the region could eventually join the alliance.
“Normalization is an amazing opportunity for the region. It’s basically the beginning of the end of war [which] means that the entire region becomes investable [and] financeable,” he says. “Banks do not have to underwrite whether the Houthis, Hezbollah, or Hamas are going to fire a missile and take down a hyper-scale data center.”
He notes that a precondition to expanding the Abraham Accords has been a ceasefire in Gaza.
“First, we needed the hopeful moment, and I’d like to think that we’ve achieved that, and we’ll build on that. Then on top of that, we needed to show people that we could stop the violence and that we could have conversation and dialogue. This is the beginning of that,” he adds.
Asked who are potential candidates for joining the Abraham Accords, Witkoff highlights Qatar, lauding the role of its prime minister in mediating between Israel and Hamas. Doha has long asserted that it will not normalize relations with Israel until a Palestinian state has been established.