President-elect Donald Trump would like to see a ceasefire agreement in Gaza According to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), that resulted in Hamas hostages being freed before he took office.
“Trump is more determined than ever to release the hostages and support a ceasefire that includes the hostage agreement. He wants to see it happen now,” Graham told Axios In an interview published on Friday.
The senator added, “I want the people of Israel and the region to know that Trump’s focus is on the hostage issue.” “He wants the killings to stop and the fighting to end.”
Graham said: “I hope President Trump and the Biden administration will work together during the transition period to release the hostages and achieve a ceasefire.”
The South Carolina Republican recently visited the Middle East — his second trip of the month — and met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Graham argued that Trump, 78, needs a cease-fire agreement before his inauguration so he can focus on Normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia and other foreign policy goals.
earlier this month, Trump told The Post That he discussed the ongoing war in the Middle East during his recent Oval Office meeting with President Biden.
“We talked a lot about the Middle East,” Trump said.
“I wanted to get his thoughts on where we are and what he thinks. And he gave them to me, he was very kind,” the president-elect said.
On Tuesday, the US helped broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, which is expected to ease tensions between the terrorist group and the Jewish state.
Biden, 81, signaled after the Israel-Hezbollah deal that his administration would continue to push for a ceasefire agreement in Gaza.
Hamas, the terrorist group responsible for the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, claimed on Wednesday that it is ready to end the 13-month conflict.
“We are committed to cooperating with any efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and we are interested in ending aggression against our people,” Hamas said in a statement.
More than 44,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish terrorist deaths from civilian deaths.
The Trump-Vance transition team and Graham’s office did not respond to The Post’s requests for comment.
(Tags to translate)Politics(T)US news(T)Donald Trump(T)Hamas(T)Israel(T)Israel-Hamas war(T)Joe Biden(T)Lindsey Graham(T)Middle East
