DONALD Trump has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Israeli leader handed Trump a letter of recommendation, claiming it was sent to the prize committee during their White House summit, which marked their first meeting since the joint military efforts against Iran.
The allies also sat down in the context of ongoing negotiations between Israel and Hamas, in the hope of agreeing to a 60-day ceasefire.
Netanyahu said Trump was “forging peace as we speak, and one country and one region after the other”.
Trump appeared thrilled with the compliment, and told Netanyahu: “Coming from you in particular, this is very meaningful. Thank you very much, Bibi.”
It is a well-known ambition of Trump’s to win the award, and he has been nominated numerous times – often by countries seeking his favour.
Recently, Pakistan’s government formally proposed his nomination in June. However, this decision faced significant internal opposition the next day when Trump targeted nuclear sites in Iran.
The summit was a display of unity between Israel and the US following their joint efforts to buckle Iran’s nuclear programme during the “12-day war”.
Following over a week of missile exchanges between Israel and Iran, the US stepped in with a remarkable covert mission, utilizing advanced bunker-buster bombs and submarine-launched missiles.
Trump is adamant that Iran’s nuclear programme has been gutted – and now says the regime has requested to restart negotiations.
He said on Monday: “We have scheduled Iran talks, and they want to. They want to talk.”
The two leaders also discussed progress towards a 60-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Representatives for the two sides met for indirect talks for the first time in six weeks in Qatar on Monday.
Both have spoken positively about the prospects, but there are reportedly a number of crucial sticking points
Netanyahu has long argued that Hamas must be completely disarmed and expelled from Gaza.
In turn, Hamas wants guarantees that the war would not resume after any ceasefire – as happened earlier this year.
When asked what was delaying the negotiations, Trump said: “I don’t think there is a hold-up. I think things are going along very well.”
And he deferred to Netanyahu when pressed for specifics about the plan for the people of Gaza – who seemed still to favour a highly-controversial plan to relocate Palestinians in neighbouring countries.
The Israeli PM claimed that moving the people of Gaza elsewhere would give them a “better future”.
He said: “I think President Trump had a brilliant vision, it’s called free choice.
“If people want to stay, they can stay, but if they want to leave, they should be able to leave.
“We’re working with the United States very closely about finding countries that will seek to realize what they always say, that they wanted to give the Palestinians a better future.
“I think we’re getting close to finding several countries.”
Trump then added to this sentiment, insisting: “We’ve had great cooperation from […] surrounding countries, great cooperation from every single one of them. So something good will happen.”
Earlier this year, the President floated the idea of relocating all the Palestinians in Gaza, and America turning it into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
