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Trump Says Gaza Ceasefire 'Would've Never Happened' Without His Team

FILE PHOTO: US President-elect Donald Trump makes remarks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, US January 7, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: US President-elect Donald Trump makes remarks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, US January 7, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo
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Trump Says Gaza Ceasefire 'Would've Never Happened' Without His Team

FILE PHOTO: US President-elect Donald Trump makes remarks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, US January 7, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: US President-elect Donald Trump makes remarks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, US January 7, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo

US President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday the ceasefire and hostage release agreement between Israel and Hamas would have never been reached without pressure from him and his incoming administration.
The agreement, which would exchange Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, awaits approval by Israel's security cabinet before taking effect, after which the terms of a permanent end to the war would be negotiated.
Four days away from being inaugurated for a second term, Trump told the Dan Bongino Show that negotiations would have never finalized without pressure from his team, including Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, AFP reported.
"If we weren't involved in this deal, the deal would've never happened," Trump said.
"We changed the course of it, and we changed it fast, and frankly, it better be done before I take the oath of office," he added.
Israel's security cabinet was set to meet Friday to discuss the terms of the ceasefire, which would go into effect Sunday at the earliest, just before Trump's presidential inauguration on Monday.
Trump also blasted outgoing President Joe Biden for taking credit for the ceasefire agreement, calling him "ungracious" and saying: "He didn't do anything! If I didn't do this, if we didn't get involved, the hostages would never be out."
Biden had proposed a ceasefire agreement last May with terms that mirrored the deal reached this week.
The ceasefire agreement under discussion proposes an initial 42-day ceasefire that would see the release of 33 hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza's population centers.
The second phase of the agreement could bring a "permanent end to the war," Biden said.
In an interview with MSNBC on Thursday, Biden said that he had not had any recent discussions with Trump about the ceasefire negotiations.

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Putin and Iranian President Sign Strategic Cooperation Treaty

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attend a documents signing ceremony in Moscow, Russia January 17, 2025. (Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attend a documents signing ceremony in Moscow, Russia January 17, 2025. (Reuters)
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Putin and Iranian President Sign Strategic Cooperation Treaty

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attend a documents signing ceremony in Moscow, Russia January 17, 2025. (Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attend a documents signing ceremony in Moscow, Russia January 17, 2025. (Reuters)

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian on Friday signed a 20-year strategic partnership treaty involving closer defense cooperation that is likely to worry the West.

Pezeshkian, on his first Kremlin visit since winning the presidency last July, hailed the signing as an important new chapter in the two countries' relations, while Putin said Moscow and Tehran had many of the same views on international affairs.

"This (treaty) creates better conditions for bilateral cooperation in all areas," said Putin, emphasizing the upside for economic ties and trade, which he said was mostly carried out in the two countries' own currencies.

"We need less bureaucracy and more concrete action. Whatever difficulties are created by others we will be able to overcome them and move forward," Putin added, referring to Western sanctions on both countries.

Putin said Russia regularly informed Iran about what was going on in the Ukraine conflict and that they closely consulted on events in the Middle East and South Caucasus region.

Russia and Iran were the main military allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who fled to Moscow after being toppled last month. The West also accuses Iran of providing missiles and drones for Russian attacks on Ukraine. Moscow and Tehran say their increasingly close ties are not directed against other countries.

Putin said work on a potential gas pipeline to carry Russian gas to Iran was progressing despite difficulties, and that, despite delays in building new nuclear reactors for Iran, Moscow was open to potentially taking on more nuclear projects.

Pezeshkian, whose words were translated by Russian state TV, said the treaty would create good opportunities and showed Moscow and Iran did not need to heed the opinion of what he called "countries over the ocean".

"The agreements we reached today are another stimulus when it comes to the creation of a multi-polar world," he said.

CLOSE COOPERATION

Moscow has cultivated closer ties with Iran and other countries hostile towards the US, such as North Korea, since the start of the Ukraine war, and already has strategic pacts with Pyongyang and close ally Belarus, as well as a partnership agreement with China.

Immediate details of the 20-year Russia-Iran agreement were not available but it was not expected to include a mutual defense clause of the kind sealed with Minsk and Pyongyang. It is still likely to concern the West, however, which sees both countries as malign influences on the world stage.

Neither leader mentioned defense cooperation during their Kremlin press conference, but officials from both countries had said earlier that part of the pact focused on defense.

Russia has made extensive use of Iranian drones during the war in Ukraine and the United States accused Tehran in September of delivering close-range ballistic missiles to Russia for use against Ukraine.

Tehran denies supplying drones or missiles. The Kremlin has declined to confirm it has received Iranian missiles, but has acknowledged that its cooperation with Iran includes "the most sensitive areas".

Russia has supplied Iran with S-300 air defense missile systems in the past and there have been reports in Iranian media of potential interest in buying more advanced systems such as the S-400 and of acquiring advanced Russian fighter jets.

Pezeshkian's visit to Moscow comes at a time when Iran's influence across the Middle East is in retreat with the fall of Assad in Syria and the Israeli pounding of Iran-backed groups Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The fate of two major Russian military facilities in Syria has been uncertain since the fall of Assad.