US President Donald Trump, on Tuesday, said that there was a "real chance" of a Gaza peace deal, days after venting his frustration at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for being 'so f***ing negative about the same.
"We are very close to making a deal on the Middle East that will bring peace to the Middle East," the US President told reporters in the Oval office in the presence of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
"There's a real chance that we could do something," Trump was quoted by AFP as saying.
Trump also said that US negotiators were involved in the talks now taking place in Egypt. From the White House, Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner are involved in said negotiations.
"I think there's a possibility that we could have peace in the Middle East. It's something even beyond the Gaza situation. We want a release of the hostages immediately," Trump said, further adding, "Our team is over there now, another team just left, and other countries, literally every country in the world, has supported the plan."
He also asserted that the United States would do "everything possible to make sure everyone adheres to the deal" if Hamas and Israel agree to a ceasefire and bring an end to the two-year war.
Peace talks enter 2nd day on war's 2nd anniversary
A senior Egyptian official involved in the ceasefire talks who spoke to news agency Associated Press on the grounds of anonymity said Hamas has demanded guarantees that Israel won’t return to war after the release of the remaining 48 hostages taken in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive.
Netanyahu, on the other hand, has said that the war will only end when all hostages are returned and Hamas has been disarmed. He has accepted Trump's plan, which calls for Gaza to be placed under international governance and for Hamas to be disarmed, elements the militants have yet to accept.
A number of international observers, including those commissioned by a United Nations body, have said that the offensive Israel has been carrying on in Gaza amounts to a genocide, a charge Tel Aviv has consistently denied.
