Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday informed President Donald Trump that he nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize, presenting Trump with a nomination letter at a White House meeting. The two leaders met with their senior advisors for a White House Blue Room dinner to celebrate the Iran operation and debate moves to advance a 60-day ceasefire initiative to stop the 21-month fighting in Gaza.
He’s making peace at this moment, and one state and one territory after another,” Netanyahu stated as he handed Trump a nominating letter he said he is submitting to the Nobel committee. The call for the peace prize comes after the Israeli leader for years had pressed Trump and his predecessors to take military action against Iran’s nuclear program. Trump ordered US forces to drop “bunker-buster” bombs and fire a barrage of Tomahawk missiles on three key Iranian nuclear sites.
Netanyahu’s ostensibly triumphant White House visit, his third this year, is shadowed by Israel’s conflict with Hamas in Gaza and doubts over how hard Trump will work to bring peace to the war-torn region.
Both leaders, however, voiced hope in an exchange ahead of reporters before dinner began that their victory in Iran would usher in a new era in the Middle East.
I believe that things are going to be very settled down a lot in the Middle East,” Trump explained. “And, they respect us and they respect Israel.”
Iran wants to renew negotiations, but Iran hasn’t confirmed it, says Trump
Trump signalled again that Iranian leaders have approached the US to arrange for talks regarding Iran’s nuclear program. Talks had begun in April but were derailed following the start of Israel’s operations last month.
Tehran has not yet confirmed that it has committed to resuming negotiations with the US.
But Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian in an interview published Monday said US airstrikes had so severely damaged his nation’s nuclear facilities that Iranian authorities still have not been able to reach them to take stock of the damage.
