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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday informed President Donald Trump that he nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize, presenting Trump with a nomination letter at a White House meeting. The two leaders met with their senior advisors for a White House Blue Room dinner to celebrate the Iran operation and debate moves to advance a 60-day ceasefire initiative to stop the 21-month fighting in Gaza.

He's making peace at this moment, and one state and one territory after another," Netanyahu stated as he handed Trump a nominating letter he said he is submitting to the Nobel committee. The call for the peace prize comes after the Israeli leader for years had pressed Trump and his predecessors to take military action against Iran's nuclear program. Trump ordered US forces to drop “bunker-buster” bombs and fire a barrage of Tomahawk missiles on three key Iranian nuclear sites.

Netanyahu's ostensibly triumphant White House visit, his third this year, is shadowed by Israel's conflict with Hamas in Gaza and doubts over how hard Trump will work to bring peace to the war-torn region.

Both leaders, however, voiced hope in an exchange ahead of reporters before dinner began that their victory in Iran would usher in a new era in the Middle East.

I believe that things are going to be very settled down a lot in the Middle East," Trump explained. "And, they respect us and they respect Israel."

Iran wants to renew negotiations, but Iran hasn't confirmed it, says Trump

Trump signalled again that Iranian leaders have approached the US to arrange for talks regarding Iran's nuclear program. Talks had begun in April but were derailed following the start of Israel's operations last month.

Tehran has not yet confirmed that it has committed to resuming negotiations with the US.

But Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian in an interview published Monday said US airstrikes had so severely damaged his nation's nuclear facilities that Iranian authorities still have not been able to reach them to take stock of the damage.

 

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Pezeshkian elaborated in the interview with right-wing American radio host Tucker Carlson that Iran would be ready to again cooperate with the UN nuclear inspectorate but cannot yet commit to allowing its inspectors unrestricted access to monitor the facilities.

We are willing to have such oversight," Pezeshkian said. "Unfortunately, due to the United States' illegal attacks against our nuclear centres and installations, several of the pieces of equipment and buildings there have been badly damaged.

Trump has made it clear that after last month's 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran he would want the conflict in Gaza to come to an end quickly. The meeting of Trump with Netanyahu could impart new urgency to a US proposal for ceasefire being negotiated between Israel and Hamas.

The prime minister had a meeting on Monday with Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio prior to his dinner meeting with Trump. Netanyahu is scheduled to meet Tuesday with Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson.

White House sources are calling on Hamas and Israel to promptly sign a new ceasefire deal that would end the combat for 60 days, pour aid into Gaza and release at least some of the last 50 hostages being held in the area, 20 of whom are said to be alive.

Leavitt on Monday announced that Witkoff will make a journey later this week to Doha, Qatar, for ceasefire and hostage negotiations.

But a point of contention is whether the ceasefire will conclude the war entirely. Hamas has indicated it is prepared to release all of the hostages in return for a cessation of the war and an absolute Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Netanyahu indicates the war will be over when Hamas gives up, disarms and exiles itself — something it refuses.

We'll negotiate a peace with our Palestinian neighbours, those who don't want to destroy us," Netanyahu announced. "We'll negotiate a peace in which our security, the sovereign power of security, always stays in our hands.

Trump has been pushing Israel to conclude the fighting, which has claimed over 57,000 Palestinian lives, devastated Gaza, increased Israel's global isolation and pushed any resolution to the larger conflict between Israel and the Palestinians further away than ever before.

The specific terms of the deal, however, remain in motion. During the lead-up to Netanyahu's trip, Trump appeared to dampen expectations for a breakthrough.

Asked on Friday whether he felt confident a ceasefire agreement would materialise, Trump said to reporters: "I'm very optimistic — but you know, look, it changes from day to day."

Following Trump's intervention into Israel's war against Iran, the two leaders are more aligned than ever. But that hasn't always been so.

As recently as Netanyahu's latest visit to Washington in April, the atmosphere was diametrically opposite.

Trump utilised the photo-op with Netanyahu to declare that the US was going into talks with Iran about its nuclear program — seemingly catching the Israeli leader by surprise and at the time slamming the brakes on any Israeli military strategy.

Trump, whose policies have for the most part catered to Israel's interests, vowed last week to be "very firm" with Netanyahu in stopping the war, without specifying what that would be. Pressure from Trump has succeeded before with Netanyahu, with a ceasefire agreement being negotiated just as the president was assuming office again.

Netanyahu is forced to juggle the pressures of his US ally with the more extreme right-wing parties in his coalition, whose support he needs for political life and who object to a conclusion to the war. However, due to the fierce backing of Israel by the US in its conflict with Iran, exemplified by dual airstrikes against a heavily fortified underground Iranian nuclear facility, Netanyahu might find it difficult to refuse.

Trump also might be expecting some return from his recent demands that Netanyahu's corruption trial be terminated — a serious meddling in the internal affairs of an independent state.

"Trump believes that Netanyahu owes him something," said Eytan Gilboa, a US-Israel expert at Tel Aviv's Bar-Ilan University. "And if Trump believes that he has to bring an end to the war in Gaza, then that is what he will have to do."