United States President Donald Trump has been reportedly nominated for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to broker diplomatic ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
Trump was nominated by Christian Tybrin-Gjedde, a member of the Norwegian Parliament, Fox News has reported.
“For his merit, I think he has done more trying to create peace between nations than most other Peace Prize nominees,” Tybrin-Gjedde told Fox.
Israel and the UAE declared there would be peace between the two nations last month, with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin inviting the leader of the United Arab Emirates to visit Jerusalem.
The gesture came as the UAE became just the third Arab country to agree to have full ties with Israel, after Egypt and Jordan.
Trump first announced the major development by saying the UAE and Israel agreed to establish full diplomatic ties as part of a deal to halt the annexation of occupied land sought by the Palestinians for their future state.
At the time, Mr Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that the agreement was “a truly historic moment”.
“Now that the ice has been broken I expect more Arab and Muslim countries will follow the United Arab Emirates,” he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sought to build settlements on lands sought by the Palestinians and embraced a Trump proposal that would allow him to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank while granting Palestinians limited autonomy in other areas.
For the UAE, home to skyscraper-studded Dubai and the rolling, oil-rich sand dunes of Abu Dhabi, it further burnishes its international campaign to be seen as a beacon of tolerance in the Middle East despite being governed by autocratic rulers.
It also puts the UAE out first in a regional recognition race among neighbouring Gulf Arab states. (9news.com)