Egypt awards Trump ‘Order of the Nile’ for role in Gaza deal
US President Donald Trump has been awarded Egypt’s highest state honour for his role in brokering a permanent ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, according to The New Arab plus agencies on October 13th.
Speaking prior to the peace summit in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, a presidential spokesperson revealed that Trump was expected to be presented with the Order of the Nile award at the meeting.
Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi co-hosted over 20 nations attending the summit on October 13th, who all gathered to discuss the implementation of the first phase of Trump’s 20-point peace plan.
The hostage exchange stage of the plan has already almost been completed as Hamas released all 20 remaining living hostages from Gaza, whilst Israel returned almost 2,000 imprisoned Palestinians, according to DW with AP, Reuters, and AFP on October 13th.
The Order of the Nile is a solid gold collar with pharaonic engravings that represent the prosperity, wealth, and endurance that the river Nile has brought Egypt throughout its long history.
It was first introduced by Sultan Hussein Kamel of Egypt in 1915 to be awarded for exceptional services to the nation. Only a handful of world leaders have been given the prestigious award.
Trump aside, King Felipe VI of Spain was the most recent recipient. Others include Queen Elizabeth II, Nelson Mandela, and King Hussein of Jordan.
Trump is only the second US President to ever receive the award, with Jimmy Carter being the first, for his role in cementing a peace deal between Egypt and Israel at Camp David in 1979.
The decision to honour Trump in recognition of his so-called peace efforts are questionable at best. Since his re-inauguration on January 20th, 2025, Trump has by and large granted Israel total diplomatic immunity from international humanitarian law.
In truth, a permanent ceasefire could have been imposed upon Israel against its will quite some time ago. However, Trump was not willing to settle for a ceasefire that jeopardised Israel’s image and US interests.
In June, as European powers were belatedly recoiling at the grotesque horrors Israel continued to inflict upon Gaza’s civilian population, the Trump administration’s UN ambassador vetoed a draft Security Council resolution calling for an “immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire”, according to The Guardian on June 4th.
All 14 other Security Council members voted in favour of the draft resolution, with the British ambassador stating that “this Israeli government’s decisions to expand its military operations in Gaza and severely restrict aid are unjustifiable.”
Conversely, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio explained that Washington vetoed the resolution as it would not allow the international community to “draw a false equivalence between Israel and Hamas, or disregard Israel’s right to defend itself.”
This choice to extend the war all in the name of shielding Israel’s global reputation came amid daily mass killings of unarmed starving Palestinians. Israeli soldiers and private American security contractors would frequently open fire on them as they sought aid at militarised distribution sites.
On August 1st, the UN reported that at least 1,373 Palestinians were killed while searching for food. Amnesty international accused Israel and the US of turning “aid-seeking into a booby trap for desperate, starving Palestinians.”
Before heading to the Sharm el-Sheikh summit, Trump addressed the Israeli parliament. He bragged that “we’ve got the best weapons and we’ve got a lot of them, and we’ve given a lot to Israel frankly”, according to The Wall Street Journal on October 13th.
Trump’s statement in reference to Israel, a state found to have committed genocide by the UN, made Cairo’s decision to flatter Trump with the Order of the Nile appear painfully submissive and detached from reality.
The New Arab plus agencies, Maghrebi.org, DW with AFP, Reuters, and AP, The Guardian, UN, The Wall Street Journal, BBC
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