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Key Points
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has met with US President Donald Trump at the White House.
- Netanyahu said Trump was “forging peace as we speak” across multiple regions.
- Trump said he was confident a Gaza ceasefire deal could be implemented.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had nominated United States President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, presenting him with a letter he sent to the prize committee.
“He’s forging peace as we speak, in one country, in one region after the other,” Netanyahu said at a dinner with Trump at the White House on Tuesday AEST.
Trump has received multiple Nobel Peace Prize nominations from supporters and loyal politicians over the years, and has made no secret of his irritation at missing out on the prestigious award.
The Republican has complained he had been overlooked by the Norwegian Nobel Committee for his mediating role in conflicts between India and Pakistan, as well as Serbia and Kosovo.
He has also demanded credit for “keeping peace” between Egypt and Ethiopia and brokering the Abraham Accords, a series of agreements aimed at normalising relations between Israel and several Arab nations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has travelled to the White House to meet with US President Donald Trump. Source: AAP / AP / Alex Brandon
Trump campaigned for office as a “peacemaker” who would use his negotiating skills to quickly end wars in Ukraine and Gaza, although both conflicts are still raging more than five months into his presidency.
It said he had “demonstrated great strategic foresight and stellar statesmanship”.
The following day, Pakistan condemned Trump’s decision to order airstrikes on nuclear facilities in Iran amid its conflict with Israel, calling the strikes an “unprecedented escalation of tension and violence” and accusing the US of breaking international law.
Trump confident of Gaza ceasefire
Netanyahu travelled to the US to meet with Trump at the White House, with Trump saying beforehand he would push for a ceasefire in Gaza.
He told reporters on Tuesday he was confident Palestinian militant group Hamas was willing to agree to a truce with Israel.
Hamas’ attack on southern Israel in October 2023 killed more than 1,200 people, with more than 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 57,523 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry. The United Nations considers the figures reliable.
US to send more weapons to Ukraine
Trump also told reporters the US would send additional weapons to Ukraine after the White House announced a halt to some arms shipments to Kyiv the previous week.
“We’re going to have to send more weapons — defensive weapons primarily,” Trump told journalists at the White House.
“They’re getting hit very, very hard,” he said of Ukraine while saying he is “not happy” with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
