Pak ambassador attends Iftar dinner hosted by Trump

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump hosted the first White House Ramadan Iftar dinner of his second term in office and expressed gratitude to “hundreds of thousands” of Muslim Americans for lending their support during the 2024 presidential election.

“As we are in the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, let me begin by saying to our Muslim friends — Ramadan Mubarak,” said Trump in the State Dining Room. The White House event was attended by Muslim community leaders, and diplomats, including Pakistan Ambassador to the US Rizwan Saeed, and government officials.

Trump said the Muslim community “was there for us in November”, referring to last year’s election, and vowed to “be there for you” in return. Trump had repeatedly pledged on the campaign trail to end the conflict, and a ceasefire was agreed upon shortly before he assumed office in January.

“We’re keeping our promises to the Muslim community. My administration is engaged in relentless diplomacy to forge lasting peace in the Middle East, building on the historic Abraham Accords, which everybody said would be impossible, and now we’re going to start filling them out,” he added. “We had the four great countries and nothing happened, despite the importance of the Abraham accords. But I have a feeling it’s going to fill out very quickly. People are talking about it already. They should have had long long ago. It should have been done.”

“All we want is peace,” he later added.