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Trump Team Claims Credit for Israel-Hezbollah Ceasefire
Then-Republican presidential nominee and current US-President-elect Donald Trump looks on during a rally at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, in Uniondale, New York, US, Sept. 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
Key members of the incoming Trump administration are taking credit for the newly announced ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah, arguing that the Jewish state and the Lebanese terrorist group agreed to the deal in response to US-President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory earlier this month.
“Everyone is coming to the table because of President Trump,” US Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL), Trump’s incoming White House national security adviser, said on X/Twitter. “His resounding victory sent a clear message to the rest of the world that chaos won’t be tolerated. I’m glad to see concrete steps towards deescalation in the Middle East.”
While celebrating the ceasefire, Waltz also warned that Iran, which backs Hezbollah, remains the main obstacle in securing long-standing peace in the Middle East.
“But let’s be clear: The Iran Regime is the root cause of the chaos & terror that has been unleashed across the region. We will not tolerate the status quo of their support for terrorism,” Waltz added.
Israel and Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire deal on Tuesday that took effect on Wednesday, effectively ending a 14-month period of war between the two parties. The agreement, brokered by the US and France, will allow roughly 70,000 Israelis to return to their homes in the northern portion of the Jewish state after having been displaced by barrages of missiles, rockets, and drones from Hezbollah. Estimates suggest that Hezbollah fired between 100-200 missiles into northern Israel nearly every day since the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7.
The ceasefire agreement will allow for intensified diplomatic efforts in Gaza, where Israel has been embroiled in an ongoing war with Hamas since the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks.
Addressing the press from the White House Rose Garden, Biden touted the new pact between Israel and Hezbollah. However, the president cautioned that Israel retains the right to retaliate should the terrorist group launch another attack against the Jewish state.
“Let’s be clear. Israel did not launch this war. The Lebanese people did not seek that war either. Nor did the United States,” Biden said.
“This is designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities,” Biden added. “What is left of Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations will not be allowed to threaten the security of Israel again.”
The Biden administration had reportedly been in collaboration with the Trump team as the president-elect continues the transition process to the White House. Waltz and Jake Sullivan, the outgoing national security adviser, had reportedly been in communication regarding the White House’s efforts to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. However, the Biden administration has said that none of Trump;s senior foreign policy team directly participated in the ceasefire negotiations.
US Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) also credited Trump for the truce.
“I appreciate the hard work of the Biden administration, supported by President Trump, to make this ceasefire a reality,” Graham wrote on social media.
Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank, posted on social media that “Iran is pulling back to regroup ahead of Trump coming into office.”
“It’s a combination of Israeli military success and Trump’s election — the ayatollah has no clothes and he knows we know,” Goldberg said.
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Iran’s Supreme Leader Says Trump Is Lying When He Speaks of Peace
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting with government officials in Tehran, Iran, April 15, 2025. Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Donald Trump on Saturday of lying when the US president said during his Gulf tour this week that he wanted peace in the region.
On the contrary, said Khamenei, the United States uses its power to give “10-ton bombs to the Zionist (Israeli) regime to drop on the heads of Gaza’s children.”
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One after departing the United Arab Emirates on Friday that Iran had to move quickly on a US proposal for its nuclear program or “something bad’s going to happen.”
His remarks, said Khamenei, “aren’t even worth responding to.” They are an “embarrassment to the speaker and the American people,” Khamenei added.
“Undoubtedly, the source of corruption, war, and conflict in this region is the Zionist regime — a dangerous, deadly cancerous tumor that must be uprooted; it will be uprooted,” he said at an event at a religious center in Tehran, according to state media.
Earlier on Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Trump speaks about peace while simultaneously making threats.
“Which should we believe?” Pezeshkian said at a naval event in Tehran. “On the one hand, he speaks of peace and on the other, he threatens with the most advanced tools of mass killing.”
Tehran would continue Iran-US nuclear talks but is not afraid of threats. “We are not seeking war,” Pezeshkian said.
While Trump said on Friday that Iran had a US proposal about its nuclear program, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in a post on X said Tehran had not received any such proposal. “There is no scenario in which Iran abandons its hard-earned right to (uranium) enrichment for peaceful purposes…” he said.
Araqchi warned on Saturday that Washington’s constant change of stance prolongs nuclear talks, state TV reported.
“It is absolutely unacceptable that America repeatedly defines a new framework for negotiations that prolongs the process,” the broadcast quoted Araqchi as saying.
Pezeshkian said Iran would not “back down from our legitimate rights”.
“Because we refuse to bow to bullying, they say we are source of instability in the region,” he said.
A fourth round of Iran-U.S. talks ended in Oman last Sunday. A new round has not been scheduled yet.
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Hamas Confirms New Gaza Ceasefire Talks with Israel in Qatar on Saturday
Doha, Qatar. Photo: StellarD via Wikimedia Commons.
A new round of Gaza ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel is underway in Qatar’s Doha, Hamas official Taher al-Nono told Reuters on Saturday.
He said the two sides were discussing all issues without “pre-conditions.”
Nono said Hamas was “keen to exert all the effort needed” to help mediators make the negotiations a success, adding there was “no certain offer on the table.”
The negotiations come despite Israel preparing to expand operations in the Gaza Strip as they seek “operational control” in some areas of the war-torn enclave.
The return to negotiations also comes after US President Donald Trump ended a Middle East tour on Friday with no apparent progress towards a new ceasefire, although he acknowledged Gaza’s growing hunger crisis and the need for aid deliveries.
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Report: ICC’s Khan Goes on Administrative Leave Amid Sexual Misconduct Probe
International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan speaks during an interview with Reuters in The Hague, Netherlands, Feb. 12, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw
i24 News – Chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim Khan has stepped down temporarily as an investigation into his alleged sexual misconduct by United Nations investigators is nearing its final phase, Reuters reported on Friday citing sources from the international court.
Khan allegedly forced sexual intercourse upon a member of staff on multiple occasions, the Wall Street Journal reported last week, linking the allegations to Khan’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-defense minister Yoav Gallant.
A statement is expected later today announcing that Khan is going on administrative leave, according to a source in the prosecutor’s office.
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