President Donald Trump said Monday shortly after a historic signing ceremony in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, that Israel’s and Hamas’s agreement to enter the first stage of a peace deal is the answer to the prayers of millions.
Trump delivered remarks while flanked by other world leaders, including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, shortly after he signed a peace document along with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“This is the day that people across the region and around the world have been working, striving, hoping, and praying for,” Trump said.
“With the historic agreement we’ve just signed, those prayers of millions have finally been answered. As you know, the hostages have been returned, and further work goes on having to do with the — sadly — to save bodies,” he added.
Trump declared “peace in the Middle East” and emphasized that the prospect was long thought impossible. He expressed optimism hours earlier that Iran would “come along” in the face of significant sanctions and the dismantling of its nuclear sites in Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan as a result of Operation Midnight Hammer.
“After years of suffering and bloodshed, the war in Gaza is over. Humanitarian aid is now pouring in, including hundreds of truckloads of food, medical equipment. and other supplies, much of it paid for by people in this room,” he said.
He highlighted that civilians are returning home and hostages are being reunited with their families.
“I’m just watching it backstage. The level of love and sorrow–I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said.
“That’s amazing when you see they haven’t seen their mother, their father, they haven’t seen them in such a long time, and they lived in a tunnel, very little tunnel, very deep, and the level of love is just incredible,” he added.
Trump also noted that he and the other world leaders have agreed to help Gaza and “lift up the people themselves.” But, he emphasized, “We don’t want to fund anything having to do with bloodshed, hatred, or terror.”
“For the same reason, we also agreed that Gaza’s reconstruction requires that it be demilitarized and that a new honest civilian police force must be allowed to create a safe condition for the people in Gaza,” he added.
The president spoke to the opportunities at hand in the region if it stays the course of peace.
“So together, let us continue in the spirit of cooperation and goodwill that has finally brought us to this incredible, historic breakthrough,” he said.
“If we do, together we will reach the Middle East’s incredible destiny–a safe and prosperous and beautiful crossroads of culture and commerce, faith in humanity, and geographic center,” he added. “This will be the geographic center of the world.”
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