'We are ready when you are': Trump talks about peace with Iran to Israeli Parliament
Addressing the Israeli Parliament on the ceasefire in Gaza, Trump said that he thinks that Tehran also wants the same
US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he wanted a peace deal with Iran, after the United States joined Israel in striking the Islamic Republic's nuclear sites during a brief war earlier this year.
Addressing the Israeli Parliament on the ceasefire in Gaza, Trump said that he thinks that Tehran also wants the same.
"They got it from one side, from the other, and you know it would be great if we could make a peace deal with them," Trump said while addressing Israeli lawmakers in their Parliament about Iran.
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"Would you be happy with that? Wouldn't it be nice, I think. Because I think they want to," he said.
Trump also added that the ball was in Tehran's court for any agreement to come to pass. "We are ready when you are," the Republican said.
Trump also defended withdrawing Washington from an agreement negotiated during ex-president Barack Obama's administration on Iran's nuclear programme. "I terminated the Iran nuclear deal and I was very proud to do it," Trump said.
"Yet even to Iran, whose regime has inflicted so much death on the Middle East, the hand of friendship and cooperation is open," he told the Knesset.
"They want to make a deal and we're going to see if we can do something. Neither the United States nor Israel bear the people of Iran any hostility. We merely want to live in peace," he added.
Trump's Middle East visit
Trump was in Israel on Monday where he addressed the Knesset ahead of a planned trip to Egypt for a summit aimed at building conditions for a lasting peace in Gaza.
Twenty hostages were released Monday as part of an agreement intended to end the war that began on Oct. 7, 2023, with an attack by Hamas-led fighters. The surviving Israeli hostages were handed over by Hamas to the International Committee of the Red Cross on Monday, marking a significant breakthrough in the ongoing Israel-Hamas ceasefire.
Israel, in return, said that it has released more than 1,900 Palestinian prisoners. The October 7, 2023, Hamas attack in Israel led to the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians. The militants had taken 251 hostages to Gaza.
Israel's retaliatory campaign in Gaza killed at least 67,869 people, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
