Washington, July 8 (UNI) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his meeting with US President Donald Trump in Washington thanked him for his intervention in Tel Aviv’s war against Iran, and said that he had sent a letter to the Nobel Prize Committee to nominate the US leader for the Peace Prize.
Before the high-profile dinner of the two leaders, the Israeli PM said “I want to express the appreciation and admiration not only of all Israelis, but of the Jewish people,” and then presented him the letter.
"I want to present to you, Mr. President, the letter I sent to the Nobel Prize Committee. It is nominating you for the Peace Prize, which is well deserved. You should get it," Netanyahu told Trump during the meeting.
A visibly moved Trump responded “Thank you very much. This I didn’t know. Wow. Coming from you, in particular, this is very meaningful. Thank you very much, Bibi.”
Trump has long maintained that he deserves the award as he has managed to end several global tensions, and resolved wars.
While Trump has been quite clear about his stance on Iran, stating that while Washington does not want to attack the country any further and reach a conclusive peace-agreement, no attempts at restarting its nuclear program will be tolerated.
Trump was also expected to press Netanyahu on the issue of resolving the 21-month crisis in the Gaza Strip during their meeting in the Blue Room at the White House. Till now, over 60,000 people have been killed in the war-torn area amid the IDF’s fighting with Hamas terrorists.
Regarding the issue, the POTUS said that a lasting resolution to the deadly conflict will depend, in part, on Netanyahu’s willingness to accept a deal that stops the fighting entirely.
The Israeli PM further said that any deal must involve the release of all hostages. While some progress was made during the talks in Qatar between the Israeli and Hamas delegations, they proved inconclusive as Tel Aviv deemed the outfit’s demands ‘unacceptable.’
The prime minister said as he was departing Israel to come to Washington his meeting with Trump “can certainly help advance these results,” and it was clear Trump was hoping the meeting would result in progress.
“I think there’s a good chance we have a deal with Hamas during the week, during the coming week, pertaining to quite a few of the hostages,” Trump told reporters in New Jersey on July 5 as he was preparing to return to Washington.
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