00:00Donald Trump says he gives Hamas three or four days to accept the Gaza peace deal.
00:06Eight Arab and Muslim nations have urged Hamas to accept the terms of the plan,
00:10which includes Hamas giving up power in Gaza.
00:13Hamas is said to be reviewing the plan, which was announced by President Trump and is backed by Israel.
00:19Here's some of what President Trump has had to say in the last few minutes.
00:22How long do you plan to get Hamas to respond to the ceasefire proposal you've heard of?
00:28Well, we're going to do about three or four days. We'll see how it is.
00:31All of the Arab countries are signed up. The Muslim countries are all signed up.
00:37Israel is all signed up. We're just waiting for Hamas.
00:40And Hamas is either going to be doing it or not.
00:43And if it's not, it's going to be a very sad end.
00:45But is there room to negotiate, Mr. President? Is there room to negotiate or is this a take it or leave a deal?
00:52Is there room to negotiate with Hamas or is this a take it or leave a deal?
00:55You know, with Hamas, we want very simple. We want the hostages back immediately.
01:00And we want some good behavior. And, you know, it's pretty, pretty simple.
01:06You don't get similar. Think of it. We've signed every country in the Middle East.
01:11This is like an impossible thing. It's never been done before.
01:14This is more than Gaza. Gaza was big stuff. But this is Gaza is a piece of it.
01:19And if they reject the deal, you said that Israel has your backing to do whatever they need to do.
01:25What do you envision that looks like?
01:26I would let them go and do what they have to do. They can do it pretty easily.
01:28I would let them go and do what they have to do.
01:31You know, we've killed about 25,000 Hamas.
01:36So certainly they paid a big price for October 7th.
01:39And this is a whole new group. You know, they come in and they come in and they keep coming.
01:43But this is a whole different group. And their leadership has been killed three different times.
01:49So they paid a big price. We hope that they're going to have a nice, calm life.
01:55Maybe it won't happen. But if it does, it'll be one of the greatest things ever to happen.
01:59We'll have actual peace in the Middle East.
02:01President Trump speaking in the last few minutes.
02:07And we are joined now by Will Grant, our North America correspondent.
02:11Will, just tell us a little bit more, if you can, about what President Trump has been saying.
02:15And obviously it is a really important moment, isn't it, to see what the Hamas response will now be.
02:21Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think we have to see this in the context of the talks that are due later today
02:26between Qatar, Turkey and Hamas. And this is clearly President Trump heaping pressure on Hamas to accept this deal.
02:34It's already, as it were, riven in to the sort of terms of the proposal that if Hamas don't accept what's on the table,
02:44then Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel have the full green light from President Trump and the Trump administration
02:51to carry on as they were, which would mean the continued bombardment and airstrikes of Gaza City
02:56that we've seen in recent days. But it was interesting, wasn't it, to see him say that he's going to give
03:01three or four days to the Hamas leadership to accept this deal, as I say, sort of loading the pressure on
03:07ahead of any response from the Hamas leadership.
03:11And do we know what levers are now being put on Hamas?
03:17Because countries like Qatar have funded them. They host the leaders.
03:22You know, other countries have had historically very strong links with Hamas.
03:25But of course, it's been massively weakened by the Israeli military action.
03:30It has. And I think that is the key point, isn't it?
03:34The sort of reality on the ground is to such a position.
03:37I mean, President Trump talking there about 25,000 fighters having been killed for Hamas.
03:42Obviously, those figures hard to to properly verify and independently stand up.
03:51But but it is weakened. It is hugely weakened by this conflict.
03:55And when it sees the traditional sort of allies and and and and the Arab and Muslim nations that are
04:03working as mediators and negotiators in this conflict are coming out and supporting the deal
04:10that is on the table by the Trump administration, you get the sense, don't you, of them being
04:14pushed into the corner, backed into the corner to accept this deal in the sense that there might
04:19not be another one and that this is the best opportunity for any kind of lasting peace that
04:25they're likely to see on the table from the Trump administration, at least at this stage.
04:30We saw Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House.
04:35And yet, obviously, the the strike on Qatar was difficult and controversial for the U.S.
04:40We saw that apology being announced from Israel to the Qataris.
04:45Donald Trump does have to balance a number of different allies, doesn't he here?
04:50Yeah, absolutely. He does.
04:52He's trying to obviously maintain the strength of the relationship with the Gulf states, with Qatar.
04:58He mentioned Saudi Arabia, which is obviously a very, very important, traditionally important ally
05:05to Washington, not just to him personally.
05:09He went through this long list, didn't he, as he was making the speech, the announcement,
05:15sort of reeling off names of people who've been involved in Egypt and so on,
05:19and how he's become close to these nations.
05:21So, yeah, he is balancing that with, of course, the traditional strength of the relationship with
05:26Tel Aviv and with Mr. Netanyahu personally.
05:30That's not an easy balancing act.
05:33You get the sense that there are political, domestic political calculations being made in all this, too,
05:41that here in the United States, opposition to the conflict, frustration with Israel is growing,
05:49even within the Republican base, even within his MAGA base, it has to be said.
05:55So he is juggling all these different things to an extent, or certainly his diplomatic team are.
06:00We'll have to see how successful it all is, because we've heard a lot of bombast,
06:04a lot of sort of optimism and hyperbole about how it's going to create sort of eternal peace in the Middle East.
06:14There's still a very, very long way to go before the details of this deal are accepted by Hamas
06:22and are in any way put into action on the ground.
06:27And there are some contradictory messages that we've heard even in the last 24 hours,
06:32with Benjamin Netanyahu saying that the plan does not mean Palestinian statehood,
06:37even though a path towards that is obviously outlined in the document that's been published.
06:44Yeah, I agree. I agree. I think that really is the crux of this.
06:48You're going to see, I think we're going to see contradictory statements coming from actually from both sides on this.
06:54That's an important one that you've pointed out there from Mr Netanyahu,
06:59obviously with an eye towards his base and towards maintaining his coalition back in Israel.
07:07But the truth of the matter is we could find a situation where there's a certain degree of lip service
07:13or ostensibly accepting the rules of this deal or the terms of this proposal,
07:18but then the actions on the ground give a very, very different story.
07:23When we continue to see the bombardment of Gaza,
07:26when we continue to see the tens of thousands of Palestinian people who have been killed,
07:31so many thousands of them children.
07:32Will Grant, thanks very much indeed.
07:36Thank you, Lord.
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