New York, Sep 30: US President Donald Trump has said Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir back his plan to end the Gaza conflict “100 per cent”, as he listed them among the world leaders “very much involved” in the negotiations on the issue.
“This afternoon after extensive consultation with our friends and partners throughout the region, I’m formally releasing our principles for peace, which people have really liked,” Trump said at a joint news conference with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House on Monday.
“These are done in total consideration and working with the nations that we’re talking about. All of these nations have made contributions to those suggestions. I want to thank the leaders of many Arab and Muslim nations for their tremendous support in developing the proposal along with many of our allies in Europe,” he said.
Trump then went on to thank the world leaders with whom he had “meetings and dialogue” on Gaza, including Pakistan.
“And I want to just say that my meetings and dialogue that we had with so many countries, Saudi Arabia as an example, the King is a phenomenal person. The Emir of Qatar, who is incredible…UAE, and that’s MBZ and ABZ,” Trump said, referring to UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
He said these leaders were “totally involved”. “These are the people that we’ve been dealing with, that have been actually very much involved in this negotiation, giving us ideas, things they can live with, things they can’t live with, pretty complex,” Trump said.
“The King of Jordan was with us in the United Nations. President of Turkiye, President Erdogan. He’s a friend of mine, strong man but a good man. President of Indonesia, somebody who’s an amazing leader, Prabowo (Subianto). He is an amazing leader and respected by everybody. He was in the room with us,” the president said.
“We were together with most of these people that I’m mentioning. Others were by phone or the next day. The prime minister and the field marshal of Pakistan, they were with us right from the beginning, incredible,” he said.
“In fact, they just put out a statement that they fully believe in this pact. It just came out. Just as I was walking out, they said, ‘Sir, you have a big notice from the prime minister of Pakistan and from the field marshal that they back this 100 per cent,” Trump added.
Trump’s ‘Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict’, announced Monday, entails that Gaza will be a deradicalised terror-free zone that does not pose a threat to its neighbours and will be redeveloped.
“If both sides agree to this proposal, the war will immediately end. Israeli forces will withdraw to the agreed upon line to prepare for a hostage release. During this time, all military operations, including aerial and artillery bombardment, will be suspended, and battle lines will remain frozen until conditions are met for the complete staged withdrawal,” according to the plan that also calls for all hostages, whether alive and deceased, to be returned within 72 hours of Israel publicly accepting this agreement.
Once all hostages are released, Israel will release 250 life sentence prisoners and 1700 Gazans who were detained after October 7, 2023, including all women and children.
For every Israeli hostage whose remains are released, Israel will release the remains of 15 deceased Gazans.
Following the announcement, the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, UAE, Indonesia, Pakistan, Türkiye, Qatar, and Egypt issued a joint statement welcoming Trump’s “leadership” and his “sincere efforts” to end the war in Gaza.
The ministers welcomed Trump’s announcement regarding his proposal to end the war, rebuild Gaza, prevent the displacement of the Palestinian people and advance a comprehensive peace, as well as his announcement that he will not allow the annexation of the West Bank.
The ministers affirmed their readiness to engage positively and constructively with the United States and the parties toward finalising the agreement and ensuring its implementation, in a manner that ensures peace, security, and stability for the people of the region.
They reaffirmed their joint commitment to work with the US to end the war in Gaza through a comprehensive deal that ensures unrestricted delivery of sufficient humanitarian aid to Gaza, no displacement of the Palestinians, the release of hostages, a security mechanism that guarantees the security of all sides, full Israeli withdrawal, rebuilds Gaza and creates a path for a just peace on the basis of the two state solution, under which Gaza is fully integrated with the West Bank in a Palestinian state in accordance with international law as key to achieving regional stability and security.
Sharif, who was in New York for the high-level 80th session of the UN General Assembly, had met Trump, along with Munir, in the White House on Thursday.
Early this summer, Trump had hosted Munir for lunch at the White House and the field marshal had accompanied Sharif for his first visit to the White House.
Sharif had also met Trump in New York on the margins of the UNGA session when the US president held a multilateral meeting on Tuesday with leaders from Arab nations and others, including Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye.
