With the landmark ceasefire deal in Gaza, the Trump administration’s diplomats this week added another achievement to a growing list of international agreements, extending one of the most active and successful U.S. diplomatic streaks in decades.
Hamas accepted the opening phase of Trump’s peace proposal Wednesday, agreeing to free all remaining hostages as Israeli forces start a partial withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. The deal follows other major peace agreements brokered by the administration, including in Cambodia, Pakistan, Rwanda and Armenia, but stands out as the largest, most complex and hardest won to date.
“[President Trump] gave us basically every authority we needed,” a senior U.S. official told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “[He] said, ‘anything you need to do, anything stand behind. You have the full authority to go and do what needs to be done to make a deal.’ That really gave us a lot of room to maneuver.”
The remaining terms of the agreement are yet to be hashed out, though Hamas has expressed openness to relinquishing power to a Palestinian technocrat government under Trump’s plan. Yisrael Ganz, governor of the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council in Israel, told the Daily Caller News Foundation that while the agreement is a great step forward, more work will have to be done to ensure Hamas holds up its end of the bargain.
“The main goals are achieved in the agreement,” Ganz told the DCNF. “[On] the other hand, I will tell you that the feelings are very complex. [Hostage families] had the tears of joy and happiness, but at the same time, tears of pain about their loved ones and the people that they loved had been murdered.”
U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and former Trump admin adviser Jared Kushner were Trump’s ace negotiators with Hamas over the months leading up to the ceasefire deal. Witkoff has been described as Trump’s “lone ranger” on foreign policy, tasked with advancing U.S. interests in the most volatile regions in the world.
The U.S. official told the DCNF that Hamas had shifted its attitude towards peace over the last few months, giving the Trump admin a critical opening.
“They were almost looking at the hostages less as an asset and more as a liability, and so we detected that shift and that was an important point,” the senior U.S. official told the DCNF.
“He puts a lot of trust in his people…if he feels that he can trust our decision making,” the senior official added.
Trump’s diplomatic team also brought peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan in August, ending a conflict that has raged on and off for over three decades. The agreement set up economic cooperation channels between the two nations while also leaving the door open for U.S. investment into the two nations in the future.
Negotiations to formally end the war were at an impasse before Trump’s team finally broke the ice.
“Thirty-five years they fought, and now they’re friends. And they’re going to be friends for a long time,” Trump said during the deal signing ceremony in August. “They suffered greatly for so many years … with this accord, we’ve finally succeeded in making peace.”
Trump also brokered a ceasefire between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo in July, but the peace has been slow to progress as clashes have still been reported. Moreover, Rwanda and the DRC said October 3 they would not sign an economic agreement planned to bring in billions of dollars of U.S. investment into mineral extraction projects.
Trump also brokered a deal between India and Pakistan after a brief but highly risky exchange of fire between the two nations. Together, the two nations possess a total of 342 nuclear weapons, with India having 172 and Pakistan holding 170, according to the Arms Control Association.
So far, peace in Ukraine has been a difficult task, as Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to drag out negotiations while maintaining offensive operations in Ukraine. After Trump and Putin’s landmark summit in Anchorage, Alaska, negotiations to end the war have stalled.
The senior U.S. official also told the DCNF that Trump’s record in the Middle East is unmatched by any other president the official could recall.
“This was very, very important to him. He really wanted to make sure we did everything possible to bring the hostages home and end the war,” the senior official told the DCNF. “He has the best track record of success [in] the middle east of any president that I can recall.”
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