Saudi Arabia will normalize relations with Israel by the end of the year, President Donald Trump predicted in an interview with Time magazine, crediting the destruction of Iran’s nuclear and missile capabilities for paving the way toward a new phase of regional peace.

“I think Saudi Arabia will lead the way toward the Abraham Accords,” Trump said in the interview, conducted Oct. 15 and published in full Thursday. “The Abraham Accords are going to start filling up very quickly. I actually know it.”

The president said Riyadh’s willingness to back the Gaza ceasefire and to consider joining the accords — which initially included the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco — stemmed from the neutralization of what he called the “Iranian threat.” He described the joint U.S.-Israeli military strikes earlier this year as decisive, saying Iran had gone from “threatening the region to fighting for survival.”

“Part of the reason Saudi Arabia was willing to get involved [in the Gaza ceasefire] is that Iran was no longer at its height of power,” Trump said, adding that without the strikes, “none of this would have happened.”

The comments mark Trump’s most explicit statement yet that his administration intends to fold Saudi Arabia into the U.S.-brokered framework of normalization deals he first championed during his first term — and to do so while consolidating a fragile truce between Israel and Hamas.

Trump said his direct intervention helped persuade Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to back the ceasefire plan despite opposition from parts of his governing coalition.

“I told him, ‘Bibi, you can’t fight the world. You can fight individual battles, but the world’s against you. And Israel is a very small place compared to the world,’” Trump recalled.

The president added that if Hamas violates the truce, the terrorist group will be in “big trouble,” though he did not specify what consequences might follow.

He described the return of Israeli hostages as “the big thing” achieved under the deal, while expressing surprise at how much Israeli public opinion prioritized their release.

“You would have thought they would have sacrificed the hostages in order to keep going, right?” Trump said. “The people of Israel wanted the hostages more than they wanted anything else.”

The president also warned that Israel risked losing U.S. support if it moved forward with annexing territory in the West Bank.

“It won’t happen, because I gave my word to the Arab countries it will not happen,” Trump said. “Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened.”

The warning came a day after the Knesset advanced a preliminary bill to annex parts of the territory — a move Netanyahu opposed. Vice President JD Vance reaffirmed Washington’s position, telling reporters as he left Israel, “The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel.”

On Thursday, Likud lawmaker Ofir Katz, the coalition’s parliamentary whip, said Netanyahu had instructed him to freeze any proposals related to extending Israeli sovereignty in the area “until further notice.”

“Israel’s been very respectful of this country,” Trump said. “They let me know everything. And sometimes I’d say no, and they’d be respectful of that.”

Reflecting on the rapid geopolitical shifts since the Gaza ceasefire, Trump said he believed his approach had set the stage for “long-term beautiful peace” — provided future presidents command respect in the region.

“It’s now just growing in a beautiful manner,” Trump said. “While I’m there, it’s going to only get better and stronger, and it’s going to be perfect.”

But he cautioned that his achievements could unravel under a weaker successor.

“If a bad president comes in, it could end very easily,” he said. “The most important thing is they have to respect the president of the United States. If they don’t, it could break apart.”

The president cited respect for U.S. leadership among Gulf powers such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates as evidence that his administration’s Middle East policy remains stable.

“They all respect the president,” Trump said. “And that’s why it’s working.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)