Donald Trump has said he asked Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt and Jordan to join the “Abraham Accords” as he tries ⁠to negotiate an agreement to end his war with Iran.

The US president has repeatedly said he wants to expand the accords, brokered by him during his first ‌term in the White House.

Trump said he spoke on Saturday to leaders of those countries, as well as the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which have already signed ⁠the accords, a set of agreements to normalise relations with Israel.

“I am mandatorily ​requesting ⁠that all countries immediately sign the Abraham Accords, and that, if Iran signs its agreement with me, as president of the United States of America, it would be an Honor to have them also be part of this unparalleled ⁠World Coalition,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

The Abraham Accords were a series of diplomatic and commercial agreements forged with US influence between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco in 2020,.

A permanent agreement in Gaza could help pave the path for talks with other majority-Muslim countries.

The term itself carries profound religious and cultural weight, invoking a biblical patriarch revered as a foundational figure across three major global faiths: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Adherents of these religions represent over half the world’s population.

Abraham, known as Ibrahim to Muslims, is often invoked by those seeking to bridge interfaith divides, serving as a common link. However, this shared legacy can also paradoxically become a source of discord, as certain faith groups assert themselves as his sole legitimate heirs.

“Everybody has tried to claim Abraham as their own, but in fact Abraham belongs to everybody,” said Bruce Feiler, author of “Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths.”

“Even in the last two years, we have seen this battle play out in a way that has played out for 4,000 years,” he said. “Everyone is trying to say, ‘This is my story, my point of view is the only point of view that matters.'”

But, he said, “the story belongs to all of us, the land will need to be shared, and the legacy will need to be a shared legacy for all of us.”

Abraham first appears in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible, described as a childless elderly man who God promised would be the father of a great nation. God sends Abraham on a journey that leads to the area of present-day Israel and the Palestinian lands.

Abraham first has a son, Ishmael, with an enslaved woman, Hagar. Then Abraham’s wife, Sarah, who is beyond childbearing years, miraculously conceives and bears Isaac. Hagar and Ishmael are banished, although Ishmael returns after Abraham’s death to help Isaac bury their father.

In a pivotal biblical story — retold each Rosh Hashana, marking the Jewish new year — God orders Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Abraham agrees, binds Isaac to an altar and is stopped before killing his son by an angel who says Abraham has passed a test of faith.

Isaac and his son Jacob become ancestors of the Jews, according to Genesis.

Christianity embraces Abraham as an exemplar of faith — willing to believe and obey God.

Islamic and Jewish traditions depict a young Abraham as smashing his father’s idols as he embraced the worship of one, almighty God.

Muslims, however, place Ismail (Arabic for Ishmael) rather than Isaac at the centre of the binding story. They honour Ismail as a righteous prophet who, according to tradition, is an ancestor of the prophet Muhammad. Muslims believe the rock upon which Abraham offered his son is within the Dome of the Rock, the gold-domed shrine in Jerusalem.

Abraham is a dividing figure — and a unifying one

Each of the three monotheistic religions — Christianity, Judaism and Islam — have claimed to be the true heirs of Abraham at different points in a history that included crusades, terror attacks and other violence.

At the same time, because all three faiths revere Abraham, he is invoked for efforts such as the diplomatic accords brokered by the majority-Christian United States between the Jewish state of Israel and majority-Muslim Arab states.

“We see in Islam a religion that traces its origins back to God’s call on Abraham,” then-President George W. Bush said at an iftar (fast-breaking) dinner with Muslims soon after the 9/11 attacks, seeking to differentiate mainstream Muslims from terrorists claiming to act in the name of Islam. “We share your belief in God’s justice, and your insistence on man’s moral responsibility.”

The term “Abrahamic faiths” is also used to promote dialogue between religions.

The United Arab Emirates is home to an Abrahamic Family House, which includes a church, mosque and synagogue.

In the United States, many involved in inter-religious dialogue see the term as more inclusive than “Judeo-Christian,” which was often used in the 20th century. While “Abrahamic” doesn’t encompass all faiths, it reflects an effort to broaden the tent.

Such efforts come amid sharpening religious divisions on other fronts. A surge in antisemitism has accompanied the current Middle East war. Anti-Muslim sentiment has risen as New York appears poised to elect its first Muslim mayor.

With words about Abraham, context is key

During his speech to the Israeli Knesset on Monday, Trump emphasised the specifically Jewish tradition around the patriarch. He offered thanks to the “God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” — a central Jewish formulation. He was applauded when he said he preferred calling the diplomatic agreements the “Avraham Accords,” using the Hebrew pronunciation.

At the same time, he has praised Arab and Muslim leaders whose countries engaged in the agreements, some of whom gathered at a summit in Egypt Monday.

It may seem head-spinning that this is the same Trump who was first elected after responding to a 2015 terror attack by calling for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” His current administration has launched a crackdown on foreign students and others who have advocated for Palestinians.

But it’s less perplexing if one pays attention “to the last 4,000 years, when everyone has lived within the tension of the story” of Abraham, Feiler said.

The story of Abraham, his two sons and their two mothers is one of “tensions, of inviting people in and pushing people out,” Feiler said.

It’s a timeless story of relations and rivalries between family members, neighbors and others, he said.

“We want it all for ourselves, but we keep being reminded that we can only live alongside the other.”