Washington, DC [US], September 30 : In just two days, US President Donald Trump on Tuesday again praised Pakistani leadership for the second time, calling Pakistan's Army General Asim Munir "a very important guy."
Trump again claimed that he stopped the India-Pakistan war while addressing an event at the Department of War.
"India and Pakistan were going at it. I called them both... They had just shot down seven planes... I said, if you do this, there's not going to be any trade, and I stopped the war. It was raging for four days... The Prime Minister of Pakistan was here, along with the Field Marshal, who's a very important guy in Pakistan... He told a group of people who were with us that this man saved millions of lives because he prevented the war from escalating. That war was going to get very bad..." Trump said.
The statement comes as Trump noted his success with the Gaza peace plan. "Yesterday, we might have settled the biggest of them all. Although I'm not sure... Hamas has to agree. If they don't, it will be very tough on them... All of the Arab nations, Muslim nations, have agreed. Israel has agreed. It's an amazing thing," he said.
Earlier on Monday, while announcing the Gaza peace plan with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said, "The Prime Minister and the Field Marshal of Pakistan were with us right from the beginning. Incredible. In fact, they have just issued a statement affirming their full commitment to this pact... They back this 100%."
Trump's praise comes after the meeting between Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif and Asim Munir in the Oval Office last week on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Trump compared the potential peace settlement in Gaza to his previous diplomatic interventions, including India-Pakistan, noting, "I've settled so many wars... Pakistan and India were very big. Both nuclear powers. I settled that. But yesterday could be the settlement in the Middle East. That hasn't happened for 3,000 years."
He also reflected on the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, saying, "The easiest one of them all is Putin. It's a war that would have never happened if I were president, if the election weren't rigged... But I knew Putin very well, and I thought that would be easy because I know him so well."
On his Gaza peace plan, Trump added, "If this works out, we'll have (solved) eight (wars) in eight months. That's pretty good. Nobody's ever done that... I don't want [the Nobel Prize]. I want the country to get it."
Earlier, at the United Nations General Assembly, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif praised Trump as a "man of peace" and nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize, allegedly for brokering a ceasefire between India and Pakistan.
"Though in a position of strength, Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire facilitated by President Trump's bold and vigorous leadership... We express our deep appreciation to him and his team," Sharif said.