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Former President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Antony Blinken both claimed some credit for President Donald Trump’s Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement on Monday.
On X, Biden – who is undergoing treatment for cancer – said that he was “deeply grateful and relieved” that the Gaza war is approaching its end.
“The road to this deal was not easy,” the Democrat wrote. “My Administration worked relentlessly to bring hostages home, get relief to Palestinian civilians, and end the war.”
But Biden also gave Trump credit for getting “a renewed ceasefire deal over the finish line.”
BEFORE AND AFTER IMAGES SHOW DEVASTATING DESTRUCTION IN GAZA
“Now, with the backing of the United States and the world, the Middle East is on a path to peace that I hope endures and a future for Israelis and Palestinians alike with equal measures of peace, dignity, and safety,” he concluded.
On Monday, Blinken said Trump’s 20-point peace plan for the Gaza Strip was based on one developed by the Biden administration.
In a lengthy post on X, Blinken, who served in the Biden administration, outlined how Trump was able to secure the peace agreement. He noted that Arab states and Turkey have said “enough” to Hamas, and said the response also showed that other Iran-backed groups — Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels — were not coming to Hamas’ aid.
“It starts with a clear and comprehensive post-conflict plan for Gaza,” Blinken wrote. “It’s good that President Trump adopted and built on the plan the Biden administration developed after months of discussion with Arab partners, Israel and the Palestinian Authority.”
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Blinken said the Biden administration briefly secured a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in January, resulting in the release of 135 hostages before the deal fell apart.
He also questioned how Trump could secure a permanent peace plan.
Fox News senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked Trump about Blinken’s remarks aboard Air Force One.
“Everybody knows it’s a joke,” Trump said. “Look, they did such a bad job. This should have never happened.”
“If just a decent president — not a great president like me — if a decent president were in, you wouldn’t have had the Russia-Ukraine (war),” Trump said. “This was bad policy by Biden and Obama.”
Trump was in Egypt on Monday to work on the second phase of the cease-fire while meeting with more than 20 world leaders.
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“We’ve heard it for many years, but nobody thought it could ever get there. And now we’re there,” Trump said.
“This is the day that people across this region and around the world have been working, striving, hoping and praying for,” he added. “With the historic agreement we have just signed, those prayers of millions have finally been answered. Together, we have achieved the impossible.”
In his post, Blinken said the postwar plan for Gaza should be implemented immediately, “with eyes wide open about its challenges: pulling together the international stabilization force, fully demilitarizing and disarming Hamas, dealing with insurgents, and expeditiously securing a phased but full Israeli withdrawal.”
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He also credited Trump for reaffirming “the key principles we established for Gaza at the outset of the war — no platform for terrorism, no annexation, no occupation, no forced population transfers — and for making clear the overall goal is to create the conditions for a credible pathway to a Palestinian state.”
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