U.S. President Donald Trump took credit for achieving “peace in the Middle East” at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday.
The president said that with the war in Gaza ended, Hamas would have to give up its weapons.
“Now they have to disarm,” Trump said. “Some people say they won’t, but they will, and if they don’t, they’re gonna not be around any longer.”
“But they agreed to disarm,” he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a similar message to U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff on Tuesday in Jerusalem, and has previously said that Hamas’s disarmament is a precondition of Gaza’s reconstruction under Phase 2 of the Trump administration’s peace plan.
Witkoff will lead talks between the United States and Iran on Friday as U.S. military forces have gathered in the region.
Trump seemed to downplay the risk of a wider conflict at the prayer breakfast, claiming that his administration has achieved “peace in the Middle East.”
“First time in 3,000 years we have peace,” Trump said. “There are little embers, but it’s nothing much.”
