US President Donald Trump said on Monday when receiving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington he was hopeful about a ceasefire in Gaza and that progress has been made with the controversial plan to establish Palestinians outside of Gaza, international press agencies report.
Netanyahu said prior to a dinner with Trump in the White House to journalists that the US and Israel collaborate with other countries that want to give Palestinians a better future.
“If people want to stay, they can stay, but if they want to leave, they must be able to leave,” he said. “We work closely with the United States in the search for countries that want to realize what they always say, namely that they want to give Palestinians a better future. I think we have almost found a number of countries.”
President Trump said that “there is a lot of cooperation from countries around Israel” and that “something good will happen.” Earlier this year, Trump came up with his controversial idea of resetting Palestinians and to turn the Gaza Strip “the Rivièra of the Middle East”.
Residents of Gaza fiercely opposed the plan and said they would never leave their homes and human rights organizations condemned it as “ethnic cleansing.” Since October 2023, Israel has killed an estimated 56,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Trump ‘Hopeful’ about Armistice
While Trump and Netanyahu meet in Washington, an Israeli delegation is having indirect negotiations with Hamas about a possible ceasefire and release of Israeli hostages.
Trump said he was hopeful about a truce and that the conversations about it “very well” went. Palestinian sources still reported to Reuters news agency on Sunday that the negotiations yielded nothing, but Trump replied to a question from a journalist which still stands in the way of a peace deal in Gaza: “I don’t think there is an impasse, I think everything is going very well.”
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Trump said nothing about what would be ‘very good’ and whether there is an agreement on large stumbling blocks such as the withdrawal of Israeli troops, humanitarian aid and not being allowed to exist of Hamas.
Netanyahu said on Monday he wanted to keep control over the Gaza Strip.
Protests against Israel
During Netanyahu’s visit, hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the White House, Reuters reports. They waved with Palestinian flags and banners with slogans as “stop arming Israel” and “say no to genocide.”
They also called for arresting Netanyahu and referred to the area of the International Criminal Court against him for war crimes in Gaza.
Conversations with Iran
Trump also said on Monday that his representatives of his government will soon have a meeting with Iran. “We have discussed discussions with Iran and they want to talk,” he said with Netanyahu prior to his dinner. “They had a big slap.”
According to his Middle East envy Steve Witkoff, that meeting will take place somewhere next week.
Trump also said he would like to remove the sanctions against Iran at some point. “I would love to be able to take away those sanctions at the right time.”
Nobel Prize for Peace
Netanyahu has nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, it became clear during his visit to Washington. On images distributed by Fox News, among other things, you can see that Netanyahu Trump handed a letter with the nomination during their dinner.
According to Netanyahu, Trump is currently “in one country after the other”, but for the time being there is still plenty of war and hardly any prospect of sustainable peace despite intensive American interference, both in Ukraine and Gaza.
“Wow, thanks,” Trump responded to the letter. “This is especially meaningful from you.” Trump has announced several times that he would like to receive the Nobel Prize for Peace. The Norwegian Nobel Committee decides on that.
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