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Trump may travel to Middle East at the weekend as he hails progress of talks
Donald Trump says he may travel to the Middle East at the end of the week, adding that indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas are “very close” and “doing very well”.
The US president was addressing reporters at a roundtable event when he said he may go on Saturday or Sunday.
Talking of “potential peace for the Middle East”, Trump told reporters:
It’s very close, they’re doing very well … It’s something I think will happen, has a good chance of happening. I may go there sometime toward the end of the week. There is a very good chance, negotiations are going very well.
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Here’s the clip of Trump being passed the note and announcing to reporters that a deal is “very close”, via Sky News.
Watch as Donald Trump is handed a note by Marco Rubio during an event at the White House.
He tells reporters: 'I was just given a note saying that we're very close to a deal in the Middle East and they're going to need me pretty quickly'https://t.co/n5edP0ayFu
📺 Sky 501 pic.twitter.com/iCKA1W5Gdu
Donald Trump is “considering” going to the Middle East at the end of this week, the White House has reaffirmed.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has just released this statement:
On Friday morning, President Trump will visit Walter Reed Medical Center for a planned meeting and remarks with the troops. While there, President Trump will stop by for his routine yearly check up. He will then return to the White House. President Trump is considering going to the Middle East shortly thereafter.
Note that Rubio hands Trump says Gaza deal is 'very close' and requests approval for a social media announcement
The Associated Press is reporting that the note Marco Rubio just handed Donald Trump appeared to say that a deal was “very close”, along with a request for Trump to give his OK to a social post related to a Gaza deal.
“Very close,” the note says underlined in a photograph captured by Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci. “You need to approve a Truth Social post soon so you can announce deal first,” the hand-scrawled note on White House stationery continues.
A senior White House official has told CNN we can expect a post on Truth Social soon from the US president.
Trump says ‘we’re very close to a deal in the Middle East’
Robert Mackey
Donald Trump was just handed a note by US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, during his live roundtable on antifascism, read it and had a brief whispered exchange. The US president then interrupted the discussion to say:
I was just given a note by the secretary of state saying that we’re very close to a deal in the Middle East, and they’re going to need me pretty quickly.
Trump added that he would “probably” travel to Egypt either before the Israeli hostages are released in the event of a deal or shortly therafter.
He ended his participation in the White House event by saying:
I have to go now to try and solve some problems in the Middle East.
Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi – who has invited Trump to travel to Egypt if a deal is reached – said signs from the talks were “encouraging”, while Hamas, too, expressed “optimism” over the indirect discussions with its foe Israel, Agence France-Presse reports.
Both warring sides have responded positively to Trump’s plan, which calls for a ceasefire, the release of all the hostages held in Gaza, Hamas’s disarmament and a gradual Israeli withdrawal from the territory.
Al-Qahera News, which is close to Egypt’s intelligence services, reported that the evening sessions for Wednesday’s talks had begun.
Egyptian state-linked media earlier aired footage of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff pulling up to the talks.
Trump said he had just come off the phone with officials in the Middle East, where his special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner had just joined discussions in Egypt.
“’Peace for the Middle East,’ that’s a beautiful phrase, and we hope it’s going to come true, but it’s very close, and they’re doing very well,” Trump added.
“We have a great team over there, great negotiators, and they’re, unfortunately, great negotiators on the other side also. But it’s something I think that will happen.”
Trump may travel to Middle East at the weekend as he hails progress of talks
Donald Trump says he may travel to the Middle East at the end of the week, adding that indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas are “very close” and “doing very well”.
The US president was addressing reporters at a roundtable event when he said he may go on Saturday or Sunday.
Talking of “potential peace for the Middle East”, Trump told reporters:
It’s very close, they’re doing very well … It’s something I think will happen, has a good chance of happening. I may go there sometime toward the end of the week. There is a very good chance, negotiations are going very well.
The day so far
We are pausing our live coverage for now after top US, Qatari and Turkish officials joined the third day of indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas in Egypt. With cautious optimism growing that a lasting truce to end Israel’s two-year war in Gaza could be on the horizon, here’s a brief summary of the day’s key developments:
US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US president Donald Trump, arrived in Sharm el-Sheikh where talks were being held. Qatari prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and head of Turkish intelligence Ibrahim Kalin also attended the Egyptian coastal resort to participate in the talks. Israeli strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer, a close confidante of Benjamin Netanyahu, is also now in attendance.
The presence of the senior officials from the three countries brought further hope that this round of talks could result in a deal, even as significant gaps remained between the two sides.
Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan said that negotiations had made “a lot of headway” and that a ceasefire would be declared if they succeed.
Hamas said that it is seeking international guarantees that Israel will not resume bombing Gaza after the group releases all the remaining hostages, living and dead, that it captured on 7 October 2023 – its main leverage over Israel.
Among the points that still need to be negotiated are the demands that Hamas disarm, how and when Israeli troops withdraw from the Gaza Strip, and the makeup of an international technocratic body that is meant to govern Gaza.
Logistics of a hostage-prisoner swap also still need to be ironed out, and Hamas has given mediators a list of Palestinian prisoners it wants to see released from Israeli prisons.
Also today, far-right Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said that Netanyahu should seek “complete victory” over Hamas in Gaza, in remarks he made while praying at al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem – a disputed area that contains Islam’s third-holiest site and is Judaism’s holiest place – on Wednesday. Hamas called his visit a “deliberate provocation”.
And another Gaza-bound humanitarian flotilla aimed at breaking Israel’s naval blockade was intercepted by the Israeli military, days after the detention of activists on an earlier flotilla led to international outrage and widespread protests. The flotilla, which set sail from Turkey, was carrying doctors, nurses and journalists on a ferry converted into a floating hospital, plus medicines, respiratory equipment and nutritional supplies intended for Gaza’s health facilities. A statement from the organisers said the Israeli military had no jurisdiction in international waters and the flotilla posed no harm. It said its crews had been “kidnapped”. Demanding their release, Turkey’s foreign ministry described the incident as an “act of piracy” and “an attack on civil activists, including Turkish citizens and members of parliament”.
With that, I’ll leave you with my colleague William Christou’s report.
Thirteen pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested in the US city of Boston after a “chaotic” clash with police that resulted in four officers being sent to area hospitals for non-life-threatening injuries, authorities said.
Everyone arrested at Tuesday’s protest was from the area and ranged in age from 19 to 27, police said. They are due to be arraigned Wednesday and Thursday, most on charges of disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and disturbing the peace.
Local news footage showed protesters and police officers shoving one another and even wrestling on the ground. Video showed protesters shouting, “Get off of him,” as officers were restraining someone.
The protest was one of many around the world that coincided with the second anniversary of the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza. Hamas militants killed around 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped 251 people, and Israel responded with a devastating military campaign that has killed more than 67,000 Palestinian people.
Here’s the full story:
Talks are focused on Israeli withdrawal line, timing of hostage release and prisoner swap list
Hamas says the indirect negotiations have so far focused on three issues: halting the conflict, withdrawing Israeli forces from Gaza and the hostage-prisoner swap deal, Reuters reports.
Two sources familiar with the talks confirmed to the news agency that sticking points included the mechanism for the Israeli withdrawal, with Hamas seeking a clear timeline linked to the release of hostages and guarantees of a complete withdrawal by Israeli forces.
CNN hears similar from an Israeli source familiar with the matter, who said negotiations are focused on where Israeli forces will withdraw to in Gaza, the timeline for the release of the hostages and the list of Palestinian prisoners set for release.
“The fact that senior officials from all the countries are there is encouraging,” the source said.
As we reported earlier, Hamas handed over its lists of hostages and Palestinian prisoners to be exchanged in a swap, and, according to Reuters’ sources, was optimistic about the talks so far.
The list of Palestinians Hamas wants freed is expected to include some of the most prominent prisoners ever jailed by Israel, whose release had been off limits in previous ceasefires.
According to a Palestinian source close to the talks, the list includes Marwan al-Barghouti, a leader of the Fatah movement, and Ahmed Saadat, head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Both are serving multiple life sentences for involvement in attacks that killed Israelis.
As I reported earlier, Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan said the indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas had made “a lot of headway” and that a ceasefire would be declared if they reached a positive outcome.
Trump also expressed optimism about progress towards a deal on Tuesday, and European, Arab and other states will meet in Paris on Thursday to discuss Gaza’s post-war transition, with Washington likely to be represented, diplomatic sources told Reuters.
But crucial details are yet to be spelled out, including the timing, a post-war administration for Gaza and the fate of Hamas.
In case you’re just joining us, talks to end the war in Gaza have been bolstered today by the arrival of senior figures from Israel and the United States in Egypt, after Hamas handed over its lists of hostages and Palestinian prisoners to be freed in a swap.
With Donald Trump’s 20-point plan appearing closer than any previous effort to halt the war, delegations were upgrading and expanding their presence at the talks that were launched on Monday in Sharm el-Sheikh.
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff are now participating in the talks in the Red Sea city, sources familiar with the talks told Reuters, and an Israeli official said strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer, a close confidante of Benjamin Netanyahu, is also now in attendance.
They joined the talks along with the prime minister of longstanding mediator Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani.
