Trump repeats stopping India-Pak conflict claim, says he deserves Nobel; Obama ‘did nothing to earn it’
US President Donald Trump has once again claimed that he stopped a conflict between India and Pakistan, saying “no one in history is more deserving” of the Nobel Peace Prize than him, while sharply criticising former president Barack Obama for receiving the award despite having “done nothing”.
Trump made the remarks during a meeting at the White House on Friday with oil and gas executives, where discussions focused on plans related to Venezuelan oil reserves. During the interaction, he reiterated his claim that eight jets were shot down during the India-Pakistan conflict in May last year, without clarifying which side suffered the losses.
“Look whether people like Trump or don't like Trump, I settled eight wars, big ones,” Trump said, adding that some of these conflicts had lasted between 25 and 36 years. Referring to India and Pakistan, he said the two countries were “just getting ready to start” a war, during which “already eight jets were shot out of the air”.
The US president also said Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who visited Washington last year, had credited him with saving millions of lives by stopping the conflict between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
This was the second time in as many days that Trump publicly claimed credit for halting the India-Pakistan standoff. He has repeatedly made this assertion since May 10 last year, when he announced on social media that India and Pakistan had agreed to a “full and immediate” ceasefire after a “long night” of talks he said were mediated by Washington.
India has consistently rejected claims of third-party mediation. New Delhi has maintained that the understanding to end hostilities was reached bilaterally after four days of intense cross-border drone and missile strikes.
India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 last year, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam attack that killed 26 civilians. India and Pakistan reached an understanding on May 10 to end the conflict.
Trump said that since returning to office, he had stopped eight wars within eight months of his second term, arguing that a Nobel Peace Prize should be awarded for “every war you stopped”. He again rebuked Obama for receiving the Nobel Peace Prize shortly after assuming office in 2009, saying Obama “had no idea why” he got the award and “didn’t do anything”.
“I can't think of anybody in history that should get the Nobel Prize more than me,” Trump said, adding that Obama was a “bad president”.
Trump further claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin had told him he had been trying unsuccessfully for 10 years to stop two wars. “He couldn't believe it,” Trump said, adding that he personally had “saved tens of millions of lives”.
Trump was also asked about Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who dedicated her Nobel Peace Prize last year to him and has said she wanted to give the honour to him. Trump said Machado would be visiting Washington next week to “pay her regards”, adding that Norway was “very embarrassed” for not awarding him the prize when the Oslo-based Nobel committee did not honour him last year.
“But I'm honoured that she's coming here. I look forward to meeting her,” Trump said.
A day earlier, in an interview with Fox News, Trump again claimed that he had stopped a war between India and Pakistan, describing the two nuclear powers as “ready to go at it big”.
(With inputs from PTI)