Doha

United States President Donald Trump on Sunday expressed confidence in achieving lasting peace in the Middle East, while warning Hamas of serious consequences if the ceasefire agreement with Israel is violated.

"I think it (ceasefire) will hold. Well, if it doesn't hold, it's Hamas. Hamas will not be hard to deal with very quickly. I hope it holds for Hamas too because they gave us their world on something, so I think it's going to hold, and if it doesn't, then they'll have a very big problem," Trump said during his interaction with presspersons aboard Air Force One.

President Trump also highlighted the wide support for the peace plan, with multiple people agreeing to join the Stabilization Force to help maintain peace in the region.

When asked why he feels that this peace plan will hold up unlike others, Trump mentioned how "everyone agrees" to the plan this time, and credited the strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities as a pivotal moment which made the deal possible.

"A year ago, it would have been very tough. I think the big thing was when we took out the nuclear power in Iran, we took out that nuclear capability, which would have happened over the next month to two months. That made a whole big difference in the Middle East. It made it possible to do the deal," he said.

President Trump is travelling to Malaysia to attend the ASEAN summit and reaffirm ties with countries in the Asian region. He took a layover in the Al-Udeid Air Base in Doha, Qatar. During his layover, he welcomed Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Qatar's Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani aboard the plane.

While the Air Force One was being refuelled, the US president praised the Qatari leadership and discussed peace in the Middle East, with the Qatari leaders also expressing confidence in lasting peace, according to Trump.

"He's (Emir of Qatar) a great guy and a great leader. He helped us a lot. It was very nice of him to come. We were refuelling, and he came. It was very very nice. Great man. Great gentleman too. We talked about peace in the Middle East. We have great peace in the Middle East. He thinks it is enduring. He's never seen anything like it. And is very happy that I got involved," Trump said.

Talking about the International Stabilization Force (ISF). Trump mentioned that its deployment it quite near with countries "actually picking leaders right now".

"They're actually picking leaders right now. You're going to have peace in the Middle East. This is real peace. This has never happened before. " For 3,000 years, this has never happened," he said.

During his visit to Asian countries, President Trump is set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss the possibility of the country reducing its Russian oil purchases to put pressure on Putin to work towards a peace deal. He also repeated the claim that Russia is stopping Russian oil purchases.

"I may be discussing it (Russian Oil purchases). You probably saw today that China is cutting back substantially on the purchase of Russian oil, and India is cutting back completely. And we've done sanctions," he mentioned.

Talking about fentanyl allegedly being smuggled into the US from China, Trump reaffirmed his support for farmers and the aim of making a deal to benefit them.

"I want our farmers to be taken care of. And he wants things also. We're going to be talking about fentanyl, of course. Fentanyl is killing a lot of people. It comes from China. I think we have a really good chance of making a really comprehensive deal," he mentioned.

When President Trump was asked about the possibility of meeting with his Russian counterpart, President Vladimir Putin, he said he has been "disappointed" by the lack of progress toward peace.

"I'm not going to be wasting my time. I've always had a very great relationship with Vladimir Putin, but this has been very disappointing. I thought this would have gotten done before peace in the Middle East. We have Azerbaijan, Armenia - that was very tough," he mentioned.

Trump also said that President Trump praised him for his Middle East peace deal.

"In fact, Putin told me on the phone he said, 'Boy, that was amazing' because everybody tried to get that done and they couldn't. I got it done," he said, while comparing his alleged efforts in stopping the hostilities between India and Pakistan.

"If you look at India and Pakistan. I could say almost any one of the deals that I've already done I thought would have been more difficult than Russia and Ukraine but it didn't work out that way. There's a lot of hatred between the two," he said.

Earlier, President Trump also mentioned that he is open to meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during his ongoing Asia tour, indicating a possible revival of high-stakes diplomacy between Washington and Pyongyang.

After Malaysia, Trump will travel to Japan to meet the new Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, to discuss trade agreements and security cooperation.

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Following Japan, Trump will visit South Korea to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit in Gyeongju. The crucial bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping will focus on trade tensions, rare earth exports, and fentanyl cooperation. (ANI) (ANI)