Trump announces a Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal is “very close”, says he also believes a nuclear deal with Iran is imminent: “They don’t want to be blown up”.Trump announces a Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal is “very close”, says he also believes a nuclear deal with Iran is imminent: “They don’t want to be blown up”.
US President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday that a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza is close, speculating that an official announcement could come on Friday or Saturday.
Trump also said that he believes a deal with Iran on its nuclear program is close as well.
“They’re very close to an agreement on Gaza, and we’ll let you know about it during the day or maybe tomorrow, and I think we have a chance of making a deal with Iran. They don’t want to be blown up, they would rather make a deal, and I think that could happen in the not too distant future,” he said.
“We want them to be safe. We want them to have a very, very successful nation. Let it be a great nation, but we can’t have that. They cannot have a nuclear weapon. It’s very simple. And I think we’re fairly close to a deal with Iran,” added Trump.
The President’s comments come a day after Arab media outlets reported that Hamas and Israel had agreed to a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza proposed by Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, adding that Trump would announce the details of the agreement within hours.
An Israeli diplomatic official denied the report, saying that Israel is unaware of Hamas’s agreement to Witkoff’s proposal.
Later, a senior Hamas official said that “Witkoff’s new proposal does not meet our demands, but we are still examining it.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had earlier informed families of Israeli hostages that Israel had accepted the new ceasefire proposal presented by Witkoff.
However, Netanyahu clarified that Israel’s agreement to the Witkoff proposal did not signify an end to the war in Gaza.
(Israel National News’ North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)
