At the White House on October 9, US President Donald Trump said he might head to the Middle East over the weekend as his administration pushes to finalize a Gaza hostages-for-ceasefire deal. Negotiators have been holding discussions in Egypt in an effort to close the agreement.
“I was just dealing with people from the Middle East on the potential peace deal for the Middle East. ‘Peace for the Middle East.’ That’s a beautiful phrase,” Trump remarked, adding that he could make the trip “sometime toward the end of the week, maybe on Sunday.”
According to Trump, the talks are progressing positively. “The negotiations are going along well, dealing with Hamas and many of the countries... Nothing like that has happened before,” he said after briefing with his team about the discussions.
He indicated that travel plans were not yet final but suggested a likely timeframe. “If that’s the case, we’ll be leaving probably on Sunday, maybe Saturday, maybe a little later than Saturday evening, but that seems to be our schedule,” he noted.
Trump described the potential agreement as being “very close,” emphasizing his involvement in reviewing the latest updates from his negotiators before deciding whether to depart for the region.
Two years after the Gaza conflict erupted, Trump on Wednesday pledged U.S. support for Gaza security guarantees and said he believes a deal is close to being completed for the remaining hostages.
Talking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said, "I think there's a possibility that we could have peace in the Middle East" beyond just Gaza. He said he would discuss Gaza with visiting Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
A U.S. official said U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who was Trump's Middle East envoy during his first term, were headed to Egypt on Tuesday to join the negotiations there.
The talks seem to represent the most promising negotiations yet for ending a war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and devastated Gaza since the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken back to Gaza as hostages.
"We are very close to making a deal on the Middle East that will bring peace to the Middle East after all of these years," Trump said at the start of an Oval Office meeting with Carney.
Asked what security guarantees the United States was willing to offer, Trump pledged help without offering specifics.
"We are going to do everything possible - we have a lot of power - and we're going to do everything possible to make sure everybody adheres to the deal," he said.
With inputs from Reuters
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