Trump to be nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Pakistan has announced it plans to nominate US President Donald Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize, citing the role that Islamabad says he played in helping to negotiate a ceasefire last month between India and Pakistan.

On X, the Pakistani government said Trump deserved the award “in recognition of his decisive diplomatic intervention and pivotal leadership during the recent India-Pakistan crisis”.

India has denied the US served as a mediator to end the fighting last month, and says it does not want any diplomatic intervention from a third party.

Trump has often suggested he should receive the Nobel Peace Prize, whose winner this year will be named in October.

In May, Trump made a surprise announcement of a ceasefire between India and Pakistan following four days of fighting between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

Pakistan’s government said in its post early on Saturday: “President Trump demonstrated great strategic foresight and stellar statesmanship through robust diplomatic engagement with both Islamabad and New Delhi, which de-escalated a rapidly deteriorating situation.

“This intervention stands as a testament to his role as a genuine peacemaker.”

There was no immediate response from Washington or New Delhi.

Trump has repeatedly said that India and Pakistan ended the conflict after a ceasefire brokered by the US, and also that he had used trade as a lever to make them agree.

Pakistan has corroborated US statements about brokering the ceasefire, but India has denied it.

Last month, Trump said he told India and Pakistan that a ceasefire was necessary in order for them to maintain trade with the US.

“I said, ‘Come on, we’re going to do a lot of trade with you guys [India and Pakistan]. Let’s stop it,” he told reporters.

The Nobel move was applauded by Mushahid Hussain, a former chair of the Senate Defence Committee in Pakistan’s parliament.

“Trump is good for Pakistan,” he told Reuters. “If this panders to Trump’s ego, so be it. All the European leaders have been sucking up to him big time.”

But Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US, criticised the move as “unfortunate”.

“A man who has backed Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza and called Israel’s attack on Iran as ‘excellent’,” she wrote on X.

“It compromises our national dignity,” she added.

On Friday, Trump posted on Truth Social that he had helped broker negotiations between multiple nations, but despite this: “No, I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize no matter what I do.”

Trump entered office vowing to quickly end the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Gaza wars, although peace deals in both conflicts have eluded him so far.

He has frequently criticised Barack Obama for winning a Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 after less than eight months as US president. In 2013, Trump called on the Norwegian Nobel Committee to rescind the award. (BBC)