Photo: Alamy
President Donald Trump cut a powerful figure this week in a new feature for TIME magazine focused on his extraordinary efforts to bring peace to the Middle East, and offering integral insight into the negotiations that have led to this historic moment.
Written by Eric Cortellessa, the feature highlights thought-provoking images of the president in the Oval Office and discusses the hard-nosed negotiations President Trump spearheaded with Israel and Hamas to get the Middle East to a point where a peace deal was even possible.
“I said, ‘No more of that. You’re giving us the f****** hostages, all of them,’” the president told TIME regarding his dealings with Hamas terrorists.
The article highlighted negotiations overseas and noted the important role that Turkey and Qatar played in pressuring Hamas to acquiesce to the president’s push for peace, even amid ongoing strikes and violence between the terrorists and Israel.
“He would have just kept going,” President Trump told the outlet about Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s relentless aggression against Gaza. “It could have gone on for years. It would have gone on for years. But I stopped him, and everybody came together when I stopped him.”
So far, the president’s peace plan has progressed surprisingly fast. With phase one mostly complete – the return of many Israeli hostages (although not all) and the withdrawal of Israeli Defense Forces to an agreed-upon line, per the deal – the administration must now monitor phase two.
The second phase includes the phased withdrawal of IDF troops as well as the disarmament of Hamas and the establishment of a temporary Palestinian government body, overseen by an international governing body, the “Board of Peace.”
“[The Palestinians] don’t have a leader right now,” the president told TIME. “At least a visible leader. And they don’t really want to, because every one of those leaders has been shot. It’s not a hot job.”
The president’s focus on establishing – and expanding – peace in the Middle East is certainly impressive, but the question of whether it can last beyond his four years in office remains to be seen.
“While I’m there, it’s going to only get better and stronger…what happens after me? I can’t tell you that,” he told the magazine.
Read the full TIME article here.