During his trip to Scotland, US President Donald Trump has said he will put further pressure on the Russian leader to make a deal with Ukraine as he also announces new plans for Gaza.
[[Donald Trump]] has also revealed he has “alternative” plans if Hamas do not release the remaining Israeli hostages.
Speaking at a meeting with Keir Starmer, Mr Trump indicated a deadline for Vladimir Putin to come to the negotiating table over the Ukraine invasion would be between 10 and 12 days instead of the 50 days previously agreed.
Pressed on what exactly the new deadline is during his meeting with [[Keir Starmer]] at his golf resort in South Ayrshire, Mr Trump said it is now "10 or 12" days from today.
“I am going to make a new deadline of around 10 or 12 days from today,” Mr Trump said, “We just don’t see any progress being made.”
He added: "There's no reason to wait if you know what the answer is going to be.”
Trump said if they don't come to an agreement he may impose sanctions or secondary tariffs.
"I don't want to do that to Russia, I love the Russian people," he said.
Before his meeting with the UK Prime Minister, Mr Trump told reporters outside Turnberry he had been close to reaching a ceasefire deal five times, however, he was “very disappointed” in Putin.
He said: "I've spoken to President Putin a lot, I've gotten along with him very well," he says, but adds that Putin "goes out and starts launching rockets into some city, like Kyiv, and kills a lot of people in a nursing home or whatever, you have bodies lying all over the street"
Questioned about Gaza during his trip to Scotland, Mr Trump said the US will establish food centres without fences in Gaza to tackle ‘real starvation’ as he also commented that there are "alternative" plans if Hamas does not release the remaining Israeli hostages.
Asked what alternatives he is looking at for getting the hostages out if there is no ceasefire, Mr Trump said there are a "couple of alternatives" and some are "pretty strong".
The US president said: “Hamas has become very difficult to deal with in the last couple of days, because they don’t want to give up these last 20, because they think as long as … they have them, they have protection, but I don’t think it can work that way.
“So I’m speaking to (Benjamin) Netanyahu, and we are coming up with various plans.
“I’m going to say it’s a very difficult situation. If they didn’t have the hostages, things would go very quickly, but they do, and we know where they have them, in some cases, and you don’t want to go riding roughshod over that area, because that means those hostages will be killed.”
Mr Trump told journalists during his trip to his Turnberry golf course in Ayrshire that the US would set up food centres in Gaza without fences.
His comments come as, in Gaza,14 people have died of malnutrition in the past 24 hours, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
The US President said: “We’re going to set up food centres, and we’re going to do it in conjunction with some very good people.
“We’re going to supply funds, and we just took in trillions of dollars, we have a lot of money and we’re going to spend a little money on some food.
“And other nations are joining us. I know your nation’s joining us, and we have all of the European nations joining us, and others also called and they want to be helpful.
“So we’re going to set up food centres where the people can walk in and no boundaries, we’re not going to have fences.
“You know, they can’t, they see the food from 30 yards away and they see the food, it’s all there, but nobody’s at it because they have fences set up that nobody can even get it. It’s crazy what’s going on over there.”
Sir Keir Starmer has said that the UK and the US can do “our very best to alleviate” the situations in Gaza.
After thanking Mr Trump for his work on the issue, Mr Starmer said: “I think that if we can work not just on the pressing issues of the ceasefire, but also on this issue of getting humanitarian aid in at volume, at speed, and then we’ve discussed a plan for what then happens afterwards, I think we can do our very best to alleviate those […] situations.
“So thank you very much for the discussion we’ve had so far and the discussion we’re about to continue on that really important issue.”
Donald Trump also said “other nations are going to have to step up” when it comes to helping people in Gaza.
Speaking outside his hotel in Turnberry, South Ayrshire, the US president said: “The United States recently, just a couple of weeks ago, we gave 60 million US dollars. It’s a lot of money.
“No other nation gave money, I know the Prime Minister would, if he knew about it. And he really knows about it now, because we’re going to be discussing it.
“But we gave 60 million US dollars, nobody said even thank you, you know, thanks, somebody should be saying thank you. But other nations are going to have to step up.”
The two leaders are due to have a meeting tomorrow when President Trump opens his new golf course in Aberdeenshire, and they are expected to have dinner with each other tonight.
Mr Swinney said people had been “horrified” by events in Gaza, adding: “We need to take action to secure a ceasefire in the Middle East.
Speaking ahead of their meeting, the First Minister said: “We need to take action to deliver humanitarian aid on the ground for the people of Gaza and the individual who is perhaps best placed to apply that pressure to the Israeli government is President Trump.
“And I want to ensure that President Trump appreciates the strength of feeling in Scotland that that should be the case.”
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