Hours after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Machado, US President Donald Trump told reporters in the White House that Machado called him and told him, ‘I am accepting this in honour of you, because you really deserved it’.”
Trump said, “I didn’t say, ‘Give it to me’, though. I think she might have…I’ve been helping her along the way. They needed a lot of help in Venezuela during the disaster. I am happy because I saved millions of lives.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benzamin Netanyahu said, Trump “deserved it”. He posted an AI image of Trump winning the Nobel Peace prize.
White House communications director Stephen Cheung said, “The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace”.
For the last five months, Trump was pitching for himself by claiming that he stopped eight conflicts. This week, he announced the Gaza peace plan, and both Hamas and Israel have accepted phase one of this plan. But the Nobel Committee dashed his hopes.
The world is discussing not about the new Nobel Peace Prize winner but about the person who lost out. It is a fact that Trump said umpteen number of times that he stopped eight wars and deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. No other person in the history of Nobel Peace Prize had ever made such a pitch.
They why did Trump lose out? Countries like Pakistan and Israel tried their best to lobby in favour of Trump. Had the Nobel Prize Committee given the prize to Trump, there would have been an outcry about the committee bowing to international pressure.
For Trump, who is the President of the United States, Nobel Peace Prize is not a great thing given his power and position. Maria Machado became a household name because she trumped Trump in the prize stake.
By losing out on the Nobel Peace Prize, Trump’s ego may have been hurt, but his mood and temperament will remain the same.
Why did Pakistan attack Kabul ?
Pakistan continues to be on the boil over the Shehbaz-Munir duo advocating the Gaza peace plan. There were protests again after Friday prayers in Lahore and Islamabad.
Tehreek-e-Labbaiq Pakistan (TLP) protesters faced police firing and teargas as security forces stopped them from marching to Islamabad to ‘gherao’ the US embassy.
Internet services were suspended in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, and huge containers were put on entry and exit points of Lahore, Peshawar, Rawalpindi and Islamabad.
The overall sentiment of the people of Pakistan is with Palestine and they feel that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and army chief Asim Munir surrendered to the US for cheap gains. Shehbaz’s government and Munir’s army may face a tough situation if the protests continue.
To divert people’s attention, Pakistan Air Force attacked Kabul with missiles to claim that they have targeted the leader of TTP (Tehreek Taliban Pakistan) Noor Wali Mehsud. A Land Cruiser vehicle was bombed, but soon afterwards an audio tape of Mehsud surfaced in which he claimed that he is alive and safe.
Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif told Parliament that the Taliban government of Afghanistan has betrayed Pakistan. He said, Pakistan provided shelter to three generations of Afghan refugees but they have now done ‘namak haraami’ (betrayal). Pakistan will not tolerate Afghans, Asif said.
At the same time, Afghan Taliban foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi was holding official talks with India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in Delhi. This was the first visit by an Afghan minister after Taliban captured power four years ago.
Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, out of pique, told a news channel that Afghans had always been loyal to India and they never supported Pakistan.
In Delhi, Amir Khan Muttaqi said, his government does not want tension to increase and all problems should be solved peacefully. In the same breath, he warned Pakistan not to make a mistake by attacking Afghanistan. He reminded Pakistan about past history when the Soviet Union and the US occupied Afghanistan.
India will be giving 12 ambulances to Afghanistan, and the keys of five such ambulances were handed over to the Afghan foreign minister on Friday. India has promised more humanitarian assistance. Muttaqi said, Afghanistan will never allow its soil to be used against India.
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