Kuwait, Lebanon, Syria top contenders to join Abraham Accords, Council for a Secure America says

(Oct. 16, 2026 / JNS)

Kuwait, Lebanon and Syria are the likeliest countries to join the Abraham Accords next, according to a report from the Council for a Secure America.

“We’re always looking at opportunities to say, ‘What is it going to take for Muslim-majority countries to join the Abraham Accords?’” Jennifer Sutton, executive director of the council, a nonprofit that promotes U.S. energy security, told JNS.

The report ranks nine Muslim-majority Middle East countries, which don’t have formal ties to Israel, by their likelihood to join the Accords, the normalization agreements that Washington brokered and to which Israel has signed.

The report also assesses Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Iraq, Yemen and Iran to determine which are least likely to join the Accords.

The rankings are based in part on expert analysis, internal polling, public opinion, government rhetoric, regional developments and economic alliances.

“The Middle East turmoil is reaching a breaking point with the people themselves,” Sutton told JNS. “People in the region want long-term peace. They want prosperity, and ultimately, they want the United States, for the most part, involved.”

“With that will hopefully come normalization with Israel in the foreseeable future for many of these countries,” she said.

The Council for Secure America has conducted three rounds of polling in Lebanon and Syria, most recently in June. The results “showed that there are a number of people that want to get rid of Hezbollah,” Sutton told JNS.

“They want to see a new Middle East, and ultimately people in the region want prosperity,” she said. “They want stability, and that’s coming from the people themselves, and I think that’s what’s dictating a lot of these outcomes.”

Kuwait, which has laws prohibiting relations with Israel, ranked first in the report. The council cited the country’s strengthening ties with the United States and United Arab Emirates. It also drew attention to Iranian attacks on Kuwait during the U.S.-Israeli war against the Iranian regime.

In September, Yossi Shelley, Israeli ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, said that Kuwait could join the Accords within six months, per the report.

Lebanon ranked second, followed by Syria. Lebanon and Israel have been pursuing a U.S.-mediated peace framework to end their state of war while they have held talks about a security agreement. Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa said in September that the two countries had come close to reaching agreement.

Council for a Secure America polling also suggests that Lebanese and Syrian respondents are interested in the possibility of peace with Israel.

“There’s a lot of things going on,” Sutton said, of ongoing regional conflicts. “But this is sort of a moment of optimism to point out where are there opportunities in the region to return to sort of that peace-through-prosperity mindset that we saw happening Oct. 4, 5 and 6, 2023.”

Saudi Arabia, widely viewed as a major potential partner in Israeli-Arab normalization before Oct. 7, ranked fourth. The report attributes the kingdom’s lower standing in part to the fallout from Israel’s war against Hamas and the conflict with Iran.

Oman, Qatar and Iraq ranked lower due, the report said, to their regional alignments, including with Iran. Yemen and Iran are the least likely candidates for normalization, according to the assessment.

“This is actually going to be the first of three reports,” Sutton told JNS.

“We will, in the coming months, do one on Muslim-majority countries in Africa, and another one on Asia to see, in a similar fashion, what would be the likelihood of some of those countries joining the accords,” she said.