Trump seizes momentum from ceasefire deal to expand peace in Middle East

Three days after announcing a ceasefire between Iran and Israel, the Trump administration is working to broaden a sustainable peace in the region, including an end to the war in the Gaza Strip.

The momentum for peace in the Middle East builds on the ceasefire between Israel and Iran after U.S. bombers hit the Islamic republic’s nuclear enrichment facilities, the White House said.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that the U.S. destruction of Iranian nuclear capabilities brought “a new era” that could attract more Gulf and Arab states to sign onto the Abraham Accords, a series of agreements that normalize relations between Israel and Arab nations.

The Iran-Israel ceasefire announced Monday has remained in place, and Mr. Trump and special envoy Steve Witkoff are communicating with the Iranians to produce an agreement with others in the region.

“The president views the Middle East on its way to peace and prosperity,” Ms. Leavitt said.

Mr. Trump’s next goal is to stop the fighting between Israel and Hamas terrorists in Gaza, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested could happen soon.

Mr. Netanyahu left the door open for a deal to end the war on Iran-backed Hamas.

“We fought with strength and prevailed over Iran,” Mr. Netanyahu said Thursday. “This victory creates a real opening to expand the circle of peace. We are pursuing it with determination.”

Ms. Leavitt said the U.S. was on “a diplomatic path” with Iran. Still, Mr. Trump said Wednesday that he is no longer focused on a new nuclear deal because he believes Iran’s nuclear capabilities have been destroyed.

“The Middle East is now shifting away from chaos and bloodshed and moving toward the beginning stages of a new era of peace and stability that President Trump has long called on them to achieve,” Ms. Leavitt said.

The Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom reported a four-way telephone conversation after the U.S. strikes on Iran among Mr. Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Mr. Netanyahu and Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer. They agreed on an outline of a plan to end hostilities between Israel and Hamas “within two weeks” and to expand the Abraham Accords to include Syria, Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries.

According to the terms of the deal, Israel would agree to a two-state concept.

Mr. Trump said nothing about a pending deal Thursday at a White House event urging lawmakers to pass his One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Mr. Trump and his team rejected reports that the U.S. strikes did not fully eliminate Iran’s nuclear capabilities but merely hobbled them temporarily.

“President Trump created the conditions to end the war, decimating, obliterating and destroying Iran’s nuclear capabilities,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said.

Ms. Leavitt said U.S. intelligence officials found no indication that Iran preserved its enriched uranium by moving it from any of the three sites bombed by U.S. planes and missiles.

Mr. Trump, posting on his Truth Social platform, said the trucks spotted before the strikes were those of concrete workers trying to cover the tops of shafts leading to the underground nuclear sites.

“Nothing was taken out of the facility,” Mr. Trump said. He encouraged several media outlets to “fire everyone” who reported on a leaked early assessment that questioned whether the strikes caused significant damage.

Congressional Democrats, who received a closed-door intelligence briefing about the strikes, were unconvinced.

“There is no reason for complacency, maybe not even comfort, because there is no evidence Iran is abandoning its hope and ambition to be a nuclear power and there’s lot of reasons to think that some of their enriched uranium and perhaps centrifuges can be reconstituted,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut Democrat.

The U.S. is in talks with the Iranians through intermediaries in Qatar. No in-person meetings between U.S. and Iranian officials have been scheduled.

“We want to ensure we can get to a place where Iran agrees to a non-enrichment, civil nuclear program, and there are many other requests that the United States has,” Ms. Leavitt said.

The White House said Iran felt the need to “save face” after its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, appeared in a video broadcast on Iranian state television and said the Islamic republic would never surrender.

The ayatollah said Iran would respond to any further U.S. attack by striking American military bases in the Middle East.

“Look, we saw the ayatollah’s video,” Ms. Leavitt said. “And when you have a totalitarian regime, you have to save face. I think any commonsense, open-minded person knows the truth about the precision strikes on Saturday night.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a televised interview Thursday that “no agreement has been made” to restart nuclear talks with the United States.

• Mallory Wilson contributed to this report.