President Donald Trump has been nominated for a 2021 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to resolve world conflict, namely his work in the Israel-United Arab Emirates peace deal. Trump was nominated for the honor by Christian Tybring-Gjedde, a member of the Norwegian parliament.
Speaking to Fox News, Tybring-Gjedde said that he nominated Trump “for his merit,” as he believes the president “has done more trying to create peace between nations than most other Peace Prize nominees.” In his nomination letter to the Nobel Committee, Tybring-Gjedde praised the president for his efforts towards resolving international conflicts, citing the “key role” he played in negotiations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and the conflict between South Korea and North Korea.
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“As it is expected other Middle Eastern countries will follow in the footsteps of the UAE, this agreement could be a game changer that will turn the Middle East into a region of cooperation and prosperity,” he wrote, adding that Trump played a “key role in facilitating contact between conflicting parties and…creating new dynamics in other protracted conflicts, such as the Kashmir border dispute between India and Pakistan, and the conflict between North and South Korea, as well as dealing with the nuclear capabilities of North Korea.”
He went on to write that Trump “has broken a 39-year-old streak of American Presidents either starting a war or bringing the United States into an international armed conflict.” He said that the “last president to avoid doing so was Peace Prize laureate Jimmy Carter.”
The nomination comes after a White House official confirmed that Trump will hold a signing ceremony on Sept. 15 to mark the conclusion of the deal, a historic agreement that would allow for “full normalization of relations” in exchange for Israel suspending annexation of occupied West Bank territory, according to Reuters.
This is not the first time Trump has been nominated for the award, as Tybring-Gjedde, who also serves as chairman of the Norwegian delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, previously nominated him in 2018. That nomination came after Trump signed an agreement with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to work toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Tybring-Gjedde told Fox News that he is “not a big Trump supporter,” though he believes “the committee should look at the facts and judge him on the facts – not on the way he behaves sometimes.” He said that other Nobel Peace Prize recipients “have done much less than” Trump, stating that former President Barack Obama, who received the award in 2009, “did nothing.”
Under Nobel Peace Prize rules, any member of a national parliament can nominate a candidate for the award. The website notes that numerous other figures can also nominate candidates. The Nobel Peace Prize recipient is determined by a five-person Nobel Committee, which is appointed by the Norwegian Parliament. The winner of the 2021 award will not be announced until October of 2021.
