(The Lion) — President Donald Trump hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago Monday, touting peace in the Middle East while warning Hamas to disarm quickly or there will be “hell to pay.”
“A lot of good things are happening in the Middle East. We have peace in the Middle East and we’re going to try and keep it that way,” Trump said, while warning Hamas will have a “very short period of time to disarm.”
The world leaders spoke to the press after a private lunch at Trump’s Palm Beach estate, exchanging repeated praise for each other as Trump has sought lasting peace in the Middle East. Trump said if Hamas doesn’t disarm, which they “agreed to do” in a ceasefire earlier this year, it will be “horrible for them.”
He credited Israel with living up to its ceasefire promises “100%” and said between the U.S. and Israel “there’s very little difference in what we’re looking at and where we want to be, where we want to go.”
“We have 59 countries that signed on, big countries, countries that are outside of the Middle East…,” Trump noted of the October ceasefire deal. “They want to go in and wipe out Hamas. They don’t want Israel, they don’t need Israel; they want to do it because it’s the right thing to do. Because they were for the deal, based on the fact that Hamas pledged, they swore, that they were going to disarm. Now, if they’re not going to disarm, those same countries will wipe out Hamas.”
Netanyahu praised Trump, saying Israel has never had as close a friend “as President Trump in the White House.” Breaking from nearly 80 years of tradition, Netanyahu said Israel will award Trump the Israel Prize for his tremendous contributions to Israel and the Jewish people,” awarding it to a non-Israeli for the first time.
Trump also renewed threats to strike Iran after hearing reports it is building up its nuclear program. “I hope they’re not trying to build up again, because if they are, we’re going to have no choice but very quickly to eradicate that build up,” Trump said.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, appearing to respond to the U.S. threat on Tuesday, promised a “harsh” response.
“Answer of Islamic Republic of Iran to any cruel aggression will be harsh and discouraging,” Pezeshkian said, CBS News reported.
Asked by a reporter about China exercising naval exercises around Taiwan, Trump downplayed concerns and touted his “great relationship” with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“They’ve been doing naval exercises for 20 years in that area. Now, people take it a little bit differently, but in fact, larger than they’re doing right now. So we’ll see,” he said. “But they’ve been, they’ve been doing that for 20 to 25 years.”
Image credit: The White House
