US President Donald Trump met Tuesday with Arab and Muslim leaders in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, including representatives from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. According to reports, Trump is expected to outline his vision for peace and present guiding principles for Gaza's future once the war ends.
Opening the meeting as he sat alongside Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Trump said: "This will be a very important meeting with leaders from a very important region. We want to end the war in Gaza. These leaders are held in great respect by me and by the White House. We want to bring the hostages home and return to normal life. We will speak with whoever we need to, including Bibi. The families of the hostages want them back, and this is the group capable of making that happen. No one else in the world can do it."
At the conclusion of the meeting, Trump remarked that it had been "a wonderful meeting with wonderful leaders." He also told the participants that this had been "the most important meeting I've had. I don't want to offend anyone, I've had 32 meetings." The president added that they were on the verge of ending something "that probably should never have started in the first place."
Earlier in the day, several of the largest Muslim countries — Qatar, Turkey, Jordan and Indonesia — slammed Israel from the UN podium. They accused Israel of "genocide" and of obstructing negotiations to end the war in Gaza.
Qatar went further, calling Israel's actions "terrorism" following its strike on a the Hamas delegation in Doha.
