- US President Trump praised Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif and Army Chief Asim Munir for backing his Gaza plan
- Trump said Pakistan supported his 20-point proposal to end the Israel-Hamas war from the beginning
- Trump’s Gaza plan includes a ceasefire, hostage releases, and prisoner exchanges within 72 hours
US President Donald Trump has praised Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the country's Army Chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, for supporting Washington's proposed Gaza peace plan. Speaking at a White House press briefing on Monday, Trump called the Pakistani leaders he met at the White House last week "incredible" and said Islamabad had been in support of his 20-point proposal aimed at ending the war between Israel and Hamas from the beginning.
"The Prime Minister and Field Marshal from Pakistan were with us from the beginning. They're incredible. They just put out a statement that they fully believe in this pact. They backed this 100 per cent and are fully in support of this plan," Trump said.
Trump also thanked leaders of several Muslim and Arab countries for their "tremendous support" of his new plan to end the Gaza war.
"I want to thank the leaders of many Arab and Muslim nations for their tremendous support in developing the proposal... My meetings and dialogue with Saudi Arabia, the Emir of Qatar, the UAE, the King of Jordan, President Erdogan of Turkey, and the President of Indonesia—we were together," he said.
Inside Trump's Plan
Trump's 'Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict,' announced Monday, entails that Gaza will be a deradicalised, terror-free zone that does not pose a threat to its neighbours and will be redeveloped.
"If both sides agree to this proposal, the war will immediately end. Israeli forces will withdraw to the agreed-upon line to prepare for a hostage release. During this time, all military operations, including aerial and artillery bombardment, will be suspended, and battle lines will remain frozen until conditions are met for the complete staged withdrawal," according to the plan that also calls for all hostages, whether alive or dead, to be returned within 72 hours of Israel publicly accepting this agreement.
Once all hostages are released, Israel will release 250 life sentence prisoners and 1700 Gazans who were detained after October 7, 2023, including all women and children.
For every Israeli hostage whose remains are released, Israel will release the remains of 15 dead Gazans.
Following the announcement, the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the UAE, Indonesia, Pakistan, Türkiye, Qatar, and Egypt issued a joint statement welcoming Trump's "leadership" and his "sincere efforts" to end the war in Gaza.
US-Pakistan Ties
US President's high praise for Pakistani leadership followed Trump's meeting with Shehbaz Sharif and Asim Munir in the Oval Office last Thursday. The meeting followed a trade deal between the US and Pakistan and came shortly after Trump and Sharif very briefly met at the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, when the US president held a multilateral meeting with leaders from Arab nations and others, including Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkiye.
Since Trump returned to the White House in January, Islamabad and Washington ties have seen a thaw. Last month, Washington signed an agreement that will entail Pakistan supplying critical minerals and rare earth elements to the US. A US firm is investing $500m in Pakistani minerals. This followed Trump's July pledge to work with Pakistan to develop its "massive oil reserves."
The two countries have reached a trade agreement that entails a 19 per cent tariff on Pakistani imports and will allow Washington to help develop Pakistan's oil reserves. US goods and services trade with Pakistan totalled an estimated USD 10.1 billion in 2024, up 6.3 per cent (USD 523.0 million) from 2023.
