WASHINGTON: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told President Donald Trump he was nominating the U.S. leader for a Nobel Peace Prize as the two took a victory lap Monday to hail their recent joint strikes on Iran ‘s nuclear facilities as an unmitigated success.
The two leaders sat down with their top aides for a dinner in the White House Blue Room to mark the Iran operation and discuss efforts to push forward with a 60-day ceasefire proposal to pause the 21-month conflict in Gaza.
“He’s forging peace as we speak, one country and one region after the other,” Netanyahu said as he presented Trump with a nominating letter he said he sent 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 U.S. forces to drop “bunker-buster” bombs and fire a barrage of Tomahawk missiles on three key Iranian nuclear sites.
It also allowed Netanyahu to further ingratiate himself with Trump, who for years has made little secret of the fact that he covets a Nobel Peace Prize and sees himself as a capable peacemaker.
He’s trumpeted recent truces that his administration facilitated between India and Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, and Israel and Iran.
“Coming from you in particular, this is very meaningful,” Trump told Netanyahu as the prime minister handed him the nomination letter.
Netanyahu’s outwardly triumphant visit to the White House, his third this year, was dogged by Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza and questions over how hard Trump will push for an end to the conflict.
But in an exchange before reporters before the dinner got underway, both leaders expressed optimism that their success in Iran would mark a new era in the Middle East. “I think things are going to be really settled down a lot in the Middle East,” Trump said. “And, they respect us and they respect Israel.”
