Pakistan has said it will recommendDonald Trumpfor the Nobel peace prize for his work in helping to resolve the recent conflict between India and Pakistan.
The move, announced on Saturday, came as the US president mullsjoining Israel in striking Iran’s nuclear facilities.
“President Trump demonstrated great strategic foresight and stellar statesmanship through robust diplomatic engagement with both Islamabad and New Delhi, which de-escalated a rapidly deteriorating situation,”Pakistansaid in a statement. “This intervention stands as a testament to his role as a genuine peacemaker.”
Governments can nominate people for theNobel peace prize. There was no immediate response from Washington. A spokesperson for the Indian government did not respond to a request for comment.
In May,a surprise announcementby Trump of a ceasefire brought an abrupt end to a four-day conflict between nuclear-armed foes India and Pakistan. Trump has since repeatedly said that he averted a nuclear war, saved millions of lives and grumbled that he got no credit for it.
Pakistan agrees that US diplomatic intervention ended the fighting, butIndiasays it was a bilateral agreement between the two militaries. In a phone call with Trump last week, the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, had made it “absolutely clear” that hostilities ceased only after Pakistan requested a ceasefire, and that no third-party mediation had taken place, said India’s foreign secretary, Vikram Misri.
In a social media post on Friday, Trump gave a long list of conflicts he said he had resolved, including India and Pakistan and the Abraham accords in his first term between Israel and some Muslim-majority countries.
He added: “No, I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize no matter what I do, including Russia/Ukraine, and Israel/Iran, whatever those outcomes may be, but the people know, and that’s all that matters to me!”
Pakistan’s move to nominate Trump camein the same weekits army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, met the US leader for lunch. It was the first time that a Pakistani military leader had been invited to the White House when a civilian government was in place in Islamabad.
Mushahid Hussain, a former chair of the senate defence committee in Pakistan’s parliament, suggested nominating Trump for the peace prize was justified.
“Trump is good for Pakistan,” he said. “If this panders to Trump’s ego, so be it. All the European leaders have been sucking up to him big time.”
But the move was not universally applauded in Pakistan, where Trump’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza has inflamed tensions.
“Israel’s sugar daddy in Gaza and cheerleader of its attacks on Iran isn’t a candidate for any prize,” said Talat Hussain, a prominent Pakistani television political talkshow host, in a post on X.