Peace in Middle East harder than ending govt shutdown, says Trump

Washington:  US President Donald Trump has said that the peace in the Middle East is “harder” than the government shutdown as he boarded a plane for Egypt to attend a summit on the peace process in Gaza.

Drawing the striking comparison between the Gaza deal and ending the US government shutdown, Trump said, “I think the hardest is this has been going on for 3000 years, the shutdowns have only been for 10 days… But we are taking care of it… We are ending some programmes that are not needed… those are Democrat sponsored programmes that we never wanted.”

He called the government shutdown the “Schumer shutdown” and said that the Democrats are “making a big mistake”.

These remarks come amid a US government shutdown, which started on October 1 and is the first in seven years. The last one happened under Trump 1.0 and lasted for 35 days — the longest in history.

Trump also said that his administration is ensuring that the American troops get their pay. He had promised it on October 11. He directed Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to “use all available funds” to ensure troops receive their pay on October 15 amid the ongoing federal government shutdown.

“We have identified funds to do this, and Secretary Hegseth will use them to pay our troops,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on October 11.

Around two-thirds of the employees of the National Park Service, the federal agency that manages national parks, have also been furloughed during the shutdown, affecting tourist sites such as caves in Carlsbad Caverns National Park and Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona and White Sands National Park in New Mexico.

Meanwhile, Trump also declared that “the war is over” in the Middle East.

It will mark the first momentous peace breakthrough in Trump’s second term after he strong-armed Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas to agree to the 20-point peace deal he proposed.

Before going to Sharm El-Sheikh for the summit, he will first stop over in Israel, where he is expected to meet Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and address the country’s parliament, the Knesset.

After the ceasefire doused the fighting in Gaza on Friday, Hamas was committed to releasing the remaining Israeli hostages, and it is expected to take place on Monday through the Red Cross.

The conflict began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas and its affiliates stormed Israel from Gaza, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.

Hamas has released several hostages in earlier deals to let them go in exchange for Israel releasing Palestinian prisoners, and in addition to the remaining 20 hostages, Hamas was to hand over the bodies of about 20 who died in custody.

–IANS