logo
Pakistan to nominate ‘genuine peacemaker' Trump for Nobel Peace Prize

Pakistan to nominate ‘genuine peacemaker' Trump for Nobel Peace Prize

Al Jazeera21-06-2025
Pakistan says it would recommend United States President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, an accolade that he has said he craves.
In May, a surprise announcement by Trump of a ceasefire brought an abrupt end to a four-day conflict between nuclear-armed foes India and Pakistan.
Trump has since repeatedly said that he averted a nuclear war, saved millions of lives and grumbled that he got no credit for it.
Pakistan agrees that US diplomatic intervention ended the fighting, but India says it was a bilateral agreement between the two militaries.
'President Trump demonstrated great strategic foresight and stellar statesmanship through robust diplomatic engagement with both Islamabad and New Delhi, which de-escalated a rapidly deteriorating situation,' Islamabad said in a statement posted on X.
'This intervention stands as a testament to his role as a genuine peacemaker and his commitment to conflict resolution through dialogue.'
Governments can nominate people for the Nobel Peace Prize. There was no immediate response from Washington, DC, or New Delhi.
Some analysts in Pakistan said the move might persuade Trump to think again about potentially joining Israel in striking Iran's nuclear facilities. Pakistan has condemned Israel's action as a violation of international law and a threat to regional stability.
In a social media post on Friday, Trump gave a long list of conflicts he said he had resolved, including India and Pakistan and the so-called Abraham Accords in his first term between Israel and some Muslim-majority countries. He added: 'I won't get a Nobel Peace Prize no matter what I do.'
Pandering to Trump's 'ego'?
Trump has repeatedly said that he is willing to mediate between India and Pakistan over the disputed Kashmir region, their main source of enmity. Islamabad, which has long called for international attention to Kashmir, is delighted.
But his stance has upended US policy in South Asia, which had favoured India as a counterweight to China, and put in question previously close relations between Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Pakistan's move to nominate Trump came in the same week its army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, met the US president for lunch. It was the first time that a Pakistani military leader had been invited to the White House when a civilian government was in place in Islamabad.
Trump's planned meeting with Modi at the G7 summit in Canada last week did not take place after the US president left early, but the two later spoke by phone, in which Modi said 'India does not and will never accept mediation' in its dispute with Pakistan, according to the Indian government.
Mushahid Hussain, a former chair of the Senate Defence Committee in Pakistan's parliament, suggested nominating Trump for the peace prize was justified.
'Trump is good for Pakistan,' he said. 'If this panders to Trump's ego, so be it. All the European leaders have been sucking up to him big time.'
But the move was not universally applauded in Pakistan, where Trump's support for Israel's war in Gaza has inflamed passions.
'Israel's sugar daddy in Gaza and cheerleader of its attacks on Iran isn't a candidate for any prize,' said Talat Hussain, a prominent Pakistani television political talk show host, in a post on X.
'And what if he starts to kiss Modi on both cheeks again after a few months?'
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

US says its strikes degraded Iran's nuclear programme by one to two years
US says its strikes degraded Iran's nuclear programme by one to two years

Al Jazeera

time4 hours ago

  • Al Jazeera

US says its strikes degraded Iran's nuclear programme by one to two years

Washington, DC – The Pentagon has announced that United States military strikes against Iran set back the country's nuclear programme by one to two years, an assessment that follows President Donald Trump's claims that the programme was 'obliterated'. Defense Department spokesperson Sean Parnell said on Wednesday that the three Iranian nuclear facilities targeted by Washington were destroyed, echoing the president's remarks. He praised the strikes as a 'bold operation'. 'We have degraded their programme by one to two years at least,' Parnell told reporters. 'Intel assessments inside the department assess that.' Since the US sent a group of B-2 stealth bombers to Iran on June 21, Trump has consistently lashed out at any suggestions that the attacks did not wreck the country's nuclear facilities. He has maintained that Iran's nuclear programme has been 'obliterated like nobody's ever seen before'. An initial US intelligence assessment, leaked to several media outlets last month, said the strikes failed to destroy key components of Iran's nuclear programme and only delayed its work by months. For its part, Tehran has been coy about providing details about the state of its nuclear sites. Some Iranian officials have said that the facilities sustained significant damage from US and Israeli attacks. But Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said last week that Trump had 'exaggerated' the impact of the strikes. There has been no independent assessment of the aftermath of the US attacks, which came as part of a 12-day war between Israel and Iran. Visual analyses via satellite images cannot fully capture the scope of the damage at the underground sites, especially the country's largest enrichment facility, Fordow. Another persistent mystery is the location and state of the stockpiles containing Iran's highly enriched uranium. Iran's nuclear agency and regulators in neighbouring states have said they did not detect a spike in radioactivity after the bombings, as might be expected from such strikes. But Rafael Grossi, the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), did not rule out that the containers holding the uranium may have been damaged in the attacks. 'We don't know where this material could be or if part of it could have been under the attack during those 12 days,' Grossi told CBS News last week. 'So some could have been destroyed as part of the attack, but some could have been moved.' Satellite images showed trucks moving out of Fordow before the US strikes. Grossi also said that Iran could be enriching uranium again in a 'matter of months'. Enrichment is the process of enhancing the purity of radioactive uranium atoms to produce nuclear fuel. The facilities targeted in the US strikes had been under constant IAEA surveillance. But now, Iran's nuclear programme is in the dark, away from the scrutiny of international inspectors. After the war, the Iranian parliament passed a law suspending cooperation with the IAEA, citing the agency's failure to condemn the US and Israeli attacks on the country's nuclear facilities. The Geneva Conventions prohibit attacks on 'installations containing dangerous forces, namely dams, dykes and nuclear electrical generating stations'. Before the war started on June 13, Tehran claimed to have obtained Israeli documents that show that the IAEA was passing off information to Israel about Iran's nuclear programme – allegations that the agency denied. Earlier on Wednesday, the US State Department called on Iran to allow the IAEA access to its nuclear programme. 'It is … unacceptable that Iran chose to suspend cooperation with the IAEA at a time when it has a window of opportunity to reverse course and choose a path of peace and prosperity,' State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement. Israel launched a massive attack against Iran on June 13 without direct provocation, claiming that it was preemptively targeting Iran's push towards a nuclear weapon. Tehran denies seeking a nuclear bomb. Israel, meanwhile, is widely believed to have an undeclared nuclear arsenal. Israeli air strikes during the conflict killed hundreds of Iranian civilians, including nuclear scientists and their family members, as well as top military officials. Iran responded with barrages of missiles that left widespread destruction and killed 29 people in Israel. Ten days into the war, the US joined the Israeli campaign and bombed Iran's nuclear facilities. Tehran, in turn, launched a missile strike against a US air base in Qatar, an attack that resulted in no casualties. Hours later, Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran. Officials in both countries have described the outcome of the war as a 'historic victory'. Israel has similarly claimed that Iran's nuclear programme was destroyed. But Iran has insisted it foiled Israel's goals by maintaining the stability of its government as well as its nuclear and missile programmes.

Hamas says studying new Gaza ceasefire proposals
Hamas says studying new Gaza ceasefire proposals

Qatar Tribune

time7 hours ago

  • Qatar Tribune

Hamas says studying new Gaza ceasefire proposals

Agencies Gaza The Palestinian group Hamas says it is studying new proposals for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza, but insisted it is seeking an agreement that would bring an end to Israel's war. Hamas said in a statement on Wednesday that it had received proposals from the mediators and is holding talks with them to 'bridge gaps' to return to the negotiating table and try to reach a ceasefire agreement. The group said it was aiming for an agreement that would end the Gaza war and ensure the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the enclave. The announcement comes a day after United States President Donald Trump said Israel had agreed to a proposal for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza and urged Hamas to accept the deal before conditions worsen. Trump has been increasing pressure on the Israeli government and Hamas to broker a ceasefire and an agreement for the group to release the Israeli captives held in Gaza. Trump said the 60-day period would be used to work towards ending the war – something Israel says it will not accept until Hamas is defeated. Trump is due to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next week. But Hamas's announcement, which emphasised its demand that the war end, raised questions about whether the latest offer could materialise into an actual pause in fighting. Israeli officials have warned that the country's military will escalate its operations in Gaza if ceasefire negotiations do not advance soon, according to the US-based Axios news outlet. 'We'll do to Gaza City and the central camps what we did to Rafah. Everything will turn to dust,' the outlet quoted a senior Israeli official as saying. 'It's not our preferred option, but if there's no movement towards a hostage deal, we won't have any other choice.' Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said any opportunity to free captives held in Gaza should not be missed, adding that there is a lot of support, both in the cabinet and within the public at large, for the US-backed proposal. The proposal, though, has not been publicly backed by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City, said Palestinians mistrust Trump and have been disappointed several times by mooted ceasefires that have failed to materialise. 'There are headlines that are talking about a potential agreement and an end to the genocide, but what we're seeing on the ground, the reality tells a different story. An average of 100 to 120 Palestinians are killed every single day,' he said. In Gaza, Israeli forces killed at least 78 people on Wednesday, according to Palestinian health authorities. Hospital officials said four children and seven women were among the dead.

US, Japan, India, Australia pledge mineral cooperation
US, Japan, India, Australia pledge mineral cooperation

Qatar Tribune

time7 hours ago

  • Qatar Tribune

US, Japan, India, Australia pledge mineral cooperation

Agencies The United States, Japan, India and Australia pledged Tuesday to work together to ensure a stable supply of critical minerals, as worries grow over China's dominance in resources vital to new technologies. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio welcomed his counterparts from the so-called 'Quad' to Washington in a shift of focus to Asia, after spending much of his first six months on the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and on President Donald Trump's domestic priorities such as migration. The four countries said in a joint statement that they were establishing the Quad Critical Minerals Initiative, aimed at 'collaborating on securing and diversifying' supply chains. They offered little detail but made clear the goal was to reduce reliance on China, which has used restrictions as leverage as the United States in turn curbs its access to semiconductors and as Trump threatens steep tariffs — including on Quad countries. 'Reliance on any one country for processing and refining critical minerals and derivative goods production exposes our industries to economic coercion, price manipulation and supply chain disruptions,' the statement said. The ministers were careful not to mention China by name but voiced 'serious concerns regarding dangerous and provocative actions' in the South China Sea and East China Sea that 'threaten peace and stability in the region.' China holds major reserves of several key minerals including the vast majority of the world's graphite, which is crucial for electric vehicles. In brief remarks alongside the other ministers, Rubio said he has 'personally been very focused' on diversifying supply chains and wanted 'real progress.' The four-way partnership was first conceived by late Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, who saw an alliance of democracies surrounding China — which has repeatedly alleged that the Quad is a way to contain it. Rubio had welcomed the Quad foreign ministers on January 21 in his first meeting after Trump's inauguration, seen as a sign the new administration would prioritize engagement with like-minded countries to counter China. But to the surprise of many, China has not topped the early agenda of Trump, who has spoken respectfully about his counterpart Xi Jinping and reached a truce with Beijing to avoid a wider trade war between the world's two largest economies.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store