Trump touts 'historic' 'Peace Summit' as world leaders convene in Egypt
By Sarah Roderick-Fitch
The Center Square
President Donald Trump is celebrating a historic, whirlwind trip to the Middle East that concluded with a “Peace Summit” in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, of over 30 international leaders.
The summit convened an impressive list of international leaders from North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia to form a Board of Peace as part of a Middle East plan.
“Together we’ve achieved what everybody said was impossible. At long last, we have peace in the Middle East,” said the president. “This is a moment in history.”
Trump touted the peace deal between Israel and Hamas, “perhaps the greatest deal of them all.”
The meeting with the world leaders came shortly after Trump addressed the Knesset in Jerusalem, joining Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israeli Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said Trump should've been awarded Nobel Prize.
In Trump’s speech in Egypt, he focused on the future of the Middle East as a whole, which has been plagued by war and conflict for decades.
“The momentous breakthrough that we’re here to celebrate tonight is more than the end of the war in Gaza – with God’s help, it will be a new beginning for an entire, beautiful Middle East…We can build a region that’s strong, and stable, and prosperous, and united in rejecting the path of terror once and for all,” said the president.
Trump reiterated the need to rebuild Gaza, calling on the help of some of the “wealthiest” countries, pointing to those in attendance. However, he underscored the need for Hamas to be disarmed.
“We’ve all agreed that supporting Gaza must be done to lift up the people themselves, but don’t want to fund anything having to do with bloodshed, hatred, and terror… For this same reason, we also agreed that Gaza’s reconstruction requires that it be demilitarized,” the president said.
His comments on demilitarizing Gaza, specifically Hamas, are a crucial part of the 20-point peace plan that Trump, Netanyahu, and many of the leaders in attendance agreed on two weeks ago during a meeting between Trump and Netanyahu in Washington, D.C.
“The first steps to peace are always the hardest – and today, we have taken them together,” said the president.
The country notably absent from the summit was Iran, which had its nuclear facility targeted by the U.S. and Israel in June.
Throughout the day's events, the president repeatedly hoped that Iran would come to the table.
Following the president’s speech at the Knesset, he told Fox News that he believes Iran is ready for diplomacy, reiterating that he believes Iran’s nuclear capabilities were destroyed.
The president pointed to Iran’s proxies, including Hezbollah, being targeted in Lebanon, with Israel taking out its leadership.
The prime minister of Pakistan announced that he would be nominating Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize only days after the president was snubbed for the award.