Full text of joint statements by President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on September 29, 2025.

President Donald Trump:

Thank you very much, everybody. This is a big, big day, a beautiful day, potentially one of the great days ever in civilization. Things that have been going on for hundreds of years and thousands of years. We’re gonna… At least we’re at a minimum very, very close, and I think we’re beyond very close. I want to thank Bibi for really getting in there and doing a job. We worked well together, as we have with many other countries, both of us, with many other countries, which is the only way this whole situation gets solved.

And I’m not just talking about Gaza. Gaza is one thing, but we’re talking about much beyond Gaza. The whole deal, everything getting solved. It’s called peace in the Middle East.

So today is a historic day for peace. Prime Minister Netanyahu and I have just concluded an important meeting on many vital issues, including Iran, trade, the expansion of the Abraham Accords, and most importantly, we discussed how to end the war in Gaza. But it’s just a part of the bigger picture, which is peace in the Middle East, and let’s call it eternal peace in the Middle East.

So this is far more than anybody expected, but the level of support that I’ve had from the nations in the Middle East and surrounding Israel and neighbors of Israel has been incredible. Incredible. Every single one of them.

This is a big, big day, a beautiful day, potentially one of the great days ever in civilization

This afternoon, after extensive consultation with our friends and partners throughout the region, I’m formally releasing our Principles for Peace, which people have really liked, I must say. And these are done, not just routinely done, these are done with total consideration and working with the nations that we’re talking about, or if these nations have made contributions to those suggestions. Advertisement Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) shakes hands with US President Donald Trump after a news conference in the State Dining Room of the White House, Washington, DC, September 29, 2025. (AP Photo/ Alex Brandon)

I want to thank the leaders of many Arab and Muslim nations for their tremendous support in developing the proposal, along with many of our allies in Europe. Europe has been very much involved. I was called, by many of the European leaders, most of them saying, Is this true? Are you really doing peace in the Middle East? This is the most incredible thing we’ve heard. Some think it’s the biggest thing they’ve ever heard. They called just to find out, was it just a rumor or is it actually done? And then they said, Have you spoken to the Arab leaders? Have you spoken to all of the other leaders that we have to get? A lot of people involved in this one.

I also want to thank Prime Minister Netanyahu for agreeing to the plan and for trusting that if we work together, we can bring an end to the death and destruction that we’ve seen for so many years, decades, even centuries, and begin a new chapter of security, peace, and prosperity for the entire region.

And I want to just say that my meetings, and dialogue that we had with so many countries: Saudi Arabia as an example, the King, is a phenomenal person. The Emir of Qatar, who’s an — these are incredible people. UAE — and that’s MBZ and ABZ — were totally involved. These are the people that we’ve been dealing with and who’ve been actually very much involved in this negotiation, giving us ideas, things they can live with, things they can’t live with.

Pretty complex. I mean, after 2,000, 3,000 years, whatever it is, I guess it’s got to be a little complex, or it would have been done a long time ago. The King of Jordan was with us, as you know, in the United Nations.

President of Turkey, President Erdoğan — he’s a friend of mine, strong man, but a good man. President of Indonesia, somebody who’s an amazing leader, Prabowo. He is an amazing leader and respected by everybody. He was in the room with us. We were together with most of these people that I’m mentioning. Others were by phone or the next day.

The Prime Minister and the Field Marshal of Pakistan, they were with us right from the beginning. Incredible. In fact, they just put out a statement that they fully believe in this pact. It just came out just as I was walking around. They said, Sir, we have a big notice from the Prime Minister of Pakistan and from the field marshal that they back this 100%. President el-Sissi of Egypt, who’s terrific.

And these are people I’ve gotten to know over the years. I would say it started around 2015 and then went into 2016 when the presidency officially began. But I’ve known them actually for a long time, and they’re, in many cases, really great men. I can’t say in all cases, but I will tell you, in many cases, they’re great men and some great women, too. They tend to be mostly men, however, I will say that.

If accepted by Hamas, this proposal calls for the release of all remaining hostages immediately, but in no case more than 72 hours. So the hostages are coming back

But if accepted by Hamas, this proposal calls for the release of all remaining hostages immediately, but in no case more than 72 hours. So the hostages are coming back.

And I hate even saying this from the standpoint. It doesn’t sound right, but it is so important to the parents: The bodies of the young men — I believe in almost all cases, the young men — are coming back immediately. I met with the parents. The parents felt as strongly about getting the body of their dead boy back as they did as though the boy were alive and well. It’s so important to them.

And it means the immediate end to the war itself, not just Gaza. It’s the war itself.

Under the plan, Arab and Muslim countries have committed, and in writing, in many cases, but I actually would take their word for it — the people I mentioned, I take their word for it — to demilitarize Gaza, and that’s quickly. Decommission the military capabilities of Hamas and all other terror organizations. Do that immediately. We’re relying on the countries that I named and others to deal with Hamas. And I’m hearing that Hamas wants to get this done, too. That’s a good thing.

And destroy all terror infrastructure, including the tunnels, weapons and production facilities. There’s a lot of production facilities that we’re destroying. It’ll also help train local police forces in the areas that we’re discussing right now, in particular in and around Gaza, working with the new transitional authority in Gaza.

All parties will agree on a timeline for Israeli forces to withdraw in phases. They’ll be withdrawing in phases. No more shooting, hopefully, as progress is made toward achieving these goals.

Arab and Muslim nations need to be allowed the chance to fulfill these commitments of dealing with Hamas. They have to deal with them because they were the one group that we have not dealt with. I haven’t dealt with them.

But the Arab countries are going to, and Muslim countries, are going to be dealing with Hamas. And I believe they’ve already been there. I think they probably have an understanding. They haven’t maybe mentioned that, but I would imagine they do. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have gone as far as they’ve gone.

If they’re unable to do so, then Israel would have the absolute right and actually our full backing, the US full backing. Marco is here. A lot of our leaders are here, our great vice president, Susie Wiles, Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner. They’ve been so involved in this process. I don’t think anybody else could have done it or even come close. But we’re right there. We’re right there. First time in thousands of years, I think you can probably say, if you really look into it, if you study back, if you’re a scholar, you would say thousands of years.

Israel would have my full backing to finish the job of destroying the threat of Hamas. But I hope we’re going to have a deal for peace. If Hamas rejects the deal, which is always possible — they’re the only one left. Everyone else has accepted it. But I have a feeling that we’re going to have a positive answer. But if not, as you know, Bibi, you’d have our full backing to do what you would have to do.

Everyone understands that the ultimate result must be the elimination of any danger posed in the region. And the danger is caused by Hamas. The tyranny of terror has to end, and this is, again, something that we’re looking for. This is eternity. This is for forever.

To ensure the success of this effort, my plan calls for the creation of a new international oversight body, the Board of Peace, we call it. The Board of Peace, a beautiful name, the Board of Peace, which will be headed, not at my request, believe me, I’m very busy, but we have to make sure this works. The leaders of the Arab world, Israel, and everybody involved, asked me to do this.

So it would be headed by a gentleman known as President Donald J. Trump of the United States. That’s what I want, is some extra work to do, but it’s so important that I’m willing to do it.

We’ll do it right. We’re going to put leaders from other countries on, leaders that are very distinguished leaders. We’ll have a board. One of the people that wants to be on the board is the UK former Prime Minister Tony Blair. Good man, very good man. And some others. They’ll be named over the next few days. It’ll be quite the........

© The Times of Israel