Trump the ‘peacemaker' becomes wartime president

Pakistan has announced it will formally recommend US President Donald Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize for his 'pivotal leadership' and role as 'peacemaker' during the recent Kashmir crisis.
Setting aside India's denial that Mr Trump facilitated an end to the hostilities in the region, Islamabad's timing could hardly have been more awkward.
It could not have known, of course, but by the time Pakistan had issued its Nobel recommendation, US B-2 stealth bombers were already en route from an airbase in Missouri to Iran. Mr Trump had ordered the Pentagon to attack three Iranian nuclear sites, taking a strategic gamble that four presidents (and he himself, during his first term) had shied away from.
Mr Trump and his administration had repeatedly warned that Iran could never obtain a nuclear weapon, and he stressed that the strikes were calibrated to avoid a broader conflict with Iran. He said 'now is the time for peace', while his Vice President JD Vance said the US was 'not at war with Iran, we're at war with Iran's nuclear programme".
But it could well be a distinction without a difference for Tehran, where supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will feel enormous pressure to retaliate, at least to some degree, after the US joined Israel's air campaign that had already blunted much of Iran's military capabilities.
If Tehran were to try to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, or if one of its proxies were to attack any of the 40,000 US military personnel stationed across the region, a conflagration could easily be sparked that would make Mr Trump a wartime president whose military is dragged into another massively destructive regional quagmire.
It was not supposed to be this way. The Republican bucked his party's hawkish tendencies during the election campaign, furiously denouncing America's 'stupid endless wars' and promising his legacy would be that of ' peacemaker and unifier".
And just last month in Saudi Arabia, he attacked America's foreign policy record in the Middle East, saying the neocons who tried to 'nation build' had wrecked far more countries than they had constructed.
Mr Trump, predictably, has come under criticism from Democrats, mainly because the US Congress was largely kept in the dark about the precise nature and timing of the strikes against Iran. Influential Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Mr Trump's 'disastrous decision' to bomb Iran without authorisation was a grave breach of the Constitution and Congress's war powers.
'He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations,' she said as she called for his impeachment. Republicans say the secrecy was necessary to avoid telegraphing an coming attack.
There is another faction Mr Trump needs to pay attention to – his most loyal followers in the isolationist Make America Great Again, or Maga, movement.
'Every time America is on the verge of greatness, we get involved in another foreign war,' Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a passionate Trump supporter and prominent member of the Maga movement, wrote on X.
But Marc Thiessen, a conservative author, wrote in The Washington Post on Sunday that too much has been made of any schism in the Maga movement, pointing to recent polling. He said large majorities of regular and Maga Republicans say they do not want Iran to have a nuclear weapon, and that they regard Israel's security as important to the US.
A look on Mr Trump's Truth Social feed is instructive, too. When he demanded Iran's ' unconditional surrender ' last week, many of his followers expressed dismay that the US appeared set to get involved in a conflict in the Middle East again.
But in posts since the American strikes, his Maga base now appears, for the most part, to be rallying around the flag and unifying in support of the decision to attack Iranian nuclear sites.
Still, here we are. For all his talk of diplomacy and deal making, Mr Trump has become entangled in another Middle East conflict with consequences that are impossible to predict.
"I won't get a Nobel Peace Prize no matter what I do," Mr Trump said in a Truth Social post last week. "Including Russia/Ukraine, and Israel/Iran, whatever those outcomes may be, but the people know, and that's all that matters to me."

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Gulf Today

an hour ago

• Gulf Today

Pakistan condemns Trump's bombing of Iran — a day after nominating him for Peace Prize

Tariq Butt, Gulf Today Correspondent / Reuters Pakistan condemned on Sunday the strikes ordered on its neighbour Iran by Donald Trump, a day after Islamabad had said it would nominate the US President for the Nobel Peace Prize. Pakistan on Sunday said Trump's decision to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities violated international law and that diplomacy was the only way to resolve the Iran crisis. "The unprecedented escalation of tension and violence, owing to ongoing aggression against Iran is deeply disturbing. Any further escalation of tensions will have severely damaging implications for the region and beyond," Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Shiite activists hold placards to condemn US and Israel's attacks on Iran, during a protest in Karachi on Sunday. AFP Also on Sunday, Pakistan's Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif telephoned Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and "conveyed Pakistan's condemnation of the U.S. attacks," a statement from the Pakistani leader said. Pakistan's information minister and the foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comment on the apparent contradiction in the country's positions over the weekend. In Pakistan's biggest city, Karachi, thousands marched in protest against the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran. Shiites hold portraits of Iran's Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to condemn US and Israel's attacks on Iran, during a protest in Karachi. AFP A large American flag with a picture of Trump on it was placed on the road for demonstrators to walk over. The protesters shouted out chants against America, Israel and Pakistan's regional enemy India. Pakistan on Saturday said it was nominating Trump as "a genuine peacemaker" for his role in bringing a four-day conflict with India to an end last month. It said he had "demonstrated great strategic foresight and stellar statesmanship." Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Ishaq Dar has formally sent a letter of recommendation to the Nobel Committee in Norway, nominating US President Donald Trump for the Nobel peace prize. Officials said the letter cited Trump's role in defusing tensions between Pakistan and India earlier this year. The move recognises Trump's efforts in bringing about a ceasefire between the two nuclear-armed neighbours and for highlighting the Kashmir dispute on the international stage. The development comes after the government's announcement, made earlier on social media, of its decision to formally nominate Trump for the world's most prestigious peace award. Pakistani nationals who were residing in Iran, arrive with their belongings in Quetta. AFP In a statement issued on X, the federal government said that the international community had witnessed "unprovoked and unlawful Indian aggression," which it described as a "grave violation" of Pakistan's sovereignty and territorial integrity. The attack, according to the statement, resulted in the "tragic loss of innocent lives, including women, children, and the elderly." In response, Pakistan launched Operation Bunyan-um-Marsoos - a "measured, resolute, and precise military" countermeasure. The operation, Pakistan stressed, was executed to re-establish deterrence and defend its territorial integrity while "consciously avoiding civilian harm." Amid the heightened tensions, the statement noted that President Trump "demonstrated great strategic foresight and stellar statesmanship" by engaging diplomatically with both Islamabad and New Delhi. This effort, it added, helped de-escalate the rapidly worsening situation, secured a ceasefire, and prevented a wider regional conflict. The government hailed Trump's actions as those of a "genuine peacemaker" with a firm commitment to resolving conflict through dialogue.

Gulf Today

an hour ago

• Gulf Today

VIDEO: US strikes 3 Iranian sites, joining Israeli air campaign

The US military struck three sites in Iran early on Sunday, inserting itself into Israel 's effort to decapitating the country's nuclear programme in a risky gambit to weaken a longtime foe amid Tehran's threat of reprisals that could spark a wider regional conflict. Iran's nuclear agency on Sunday confirmed attacks took place on its Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz atomic sites, but is insisting its work will not be stopped. The Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran issued the statement after President Donald Trump announced the American attack on the facilities. "The Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran assures the great Iranian nation that despite the evil conspiracies of its enemies, with the efforts of thousands of its revolutionary and motivated scientists and experts, it will not allow the development of this national industry, which is the result of the blood of nuclear martyrs, to be stopped,' it said in its statement. The decision to directly involve the US comes after more than a week of strikes by Israel on Iran that have moved to systematically eradicate the country's air defences and offensive missile capabilities, while damaging its nuclear enrichment facilities. But US and Israeli officials have said that American stealth bombers and a 30,000-lb. bunker buster bomb they alone can carry offered the best chance of destroying heavily-fortified sites connected to the Iranian nuclear programme buried deep underground. President Donald Trump was the first to disclose the strikes. There was no immediate acknowledgment from the Iranian government. Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported that attacks targeted the country's Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites. The agency did not elaborate. The US is stepping up evacuation flights for American citizens from Israel to Europe and continuing to draw down its staff at diplomatic missions in Iraq as fears of Iranian retaliation again US interests in the Middle East grow. Even before those airstrikes were announced by President Donald Trump on Saturday evening in Washington, the US embassy in Jerusalem announced the start of evacuation flights for American civilians from Israel. In addition to the flights, a cruise ship carrying more than 1,000 American citizens, including several hundred Jewish youngsters who had been visiting Israel on an organized tour, arrived in Cyprus, according to the document. Donald Trump said he worked "as a team' with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying the collaboration was "perhaps' like "no team has worked before.' This handout satellite image shows an overview of Iran's Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP), in Fordo, Iran. AFP But Trump also noted that no military in the world except for that of the US could have pulled off the attack. President Donald Trump called Iran "the bully of the Middle East' and warned of additional attacks if it didn't make peace. "If they do not, future attacks would be far greater and a lot easier,' Trump said at the White House after the bombings of Iran's nuclear facilities were announced earlier. Trump portrayed the strike as a response to a long-festering problem, even if the objective was to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons. The Washington-based Arms Control Association, which focuses on nuclear nonproliferation, said the attack was an "irresponsible departure from Trump's pursuit of diplomacy and increases the risk of a nuclear-armed Iran.' "The US military strikes on Iranian nuclear targets, including the deeply fortified, underground Fordo uranium enrichment complex, may temporarily set back Iran's nuclear program, but in the long term, military action is likely to push Iran to determine nuclear weapons are necessary for deterrence and that Washington is not interested in diplomacy,' it warned. A police tape blocks off an area near the White House, following US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, in Washington, DC, U.S., on Saturday. Reuters Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported early Sunday that attacks also targeted the country's Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites. IRNA quoted Akbar Salehi, Isfahan's deputy governor in charge of security affairs, saying there had been attacks around the sites. He did not elaborate. Another official confirmed an attack targeting Iran's underground Fordo nuclear site. Iran's state-run IRNA news agency early Sunday acknowledged an attack on the country's Fordo nuclear site. Quoting a statement from Iran's Qom province, IRNA said: "A few hours ago, when Qom air defenses were activated and hostile targets were identified, part of the Fordo nuclear site was attacked by enemies.' The IRNA report did not elaborate. Iran's semiofficial Tasnim news agency, believed to be close to the country's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, quoted a provincial official in Qom that air defense did recently fire in an attack believed to target the area around the Fordo facility, but offered no other information. The semiofficial Fars news agency, also close to the Guard, quoted another official saying air defenses opened fire near Isfahan and explosions had been heard. Fars also quoted the same official in Qom province, saying air defenses fired around Fordo. President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi arrives at Baghdad International Airport. File/Reuters President Abdel Fattah El Sissi of Egypt has expressed his government's "complete rejection' of Israel's campaign against Iran, calling for a negotiated solution to the conflict. El Sissi's comments came in a phone call Saturday with Iranian President Masoud Pezezhkin, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement. The statement said El Sissi voiced Egypt's "complete rejection of the ongoing Israeli escalation against Iran,' as a threat to the Middle East's security and stability. The Egyptian leader called for an immediate ceasefire to resume negotiations with the aim of reaching a "sustainable, peaceful solution to this crisis.'

Al Etihad

3 hours ago

• Al Etihad

UN Security Council meets on Iran

23 June 2025 00:05 UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) The UN Security Council met on Sunday to discuss US strikes on Iran's nuclear sites, and to adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle was not immediately clear when it could be put to a vote. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China to pass."The bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States marks a perilous turn in a region that is already reeling," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Sunday. "We now risk descending into a rathole of retaliation after retaliation.""We must act - immediately and decisively - to halt the fighting and return to serious, sustained negotiations on the Iran nuclear programme," Guterres world awaited Iran's response on Sunday after President Donald Trump said the US had "obliterated" Tehran's key nuclear nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that while craters were visible at Iran's enrichment site buried into a mountain at Fordow, "no one - including the IAEA - is in a position to assess the underground damage."Grossi said entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit at Iran's sprawling Isfahan nuclear complex, while the fuel enrichment plant at Natanz has been struck again. "Iran has informed the IAEA there has been no increase in off-site radiation levels at all three sites," said Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency. Israel-Iran Conflict Continue full coverage