Trump says he is optimistic about a Gaza deal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Two years after the Gaza conflict erupted, President Donald Trump on Tuesday pledged U.S. support for Gaza security guarantees and said he believes a deal is close to being completed for the remaining hostages.

Talking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said, "I think there's a possibility that we could have peace in the Middle East" beyond just Gaza. He said he would discuss Gaza with visiting Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

A U.S. official said U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who was Trump's Middle East envoy during his first term, were headed to Egypt on Tuesday to join the negotiations there.

The talks seem to represent the most promising negotiations yet for ending a war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and devastated Gaza since the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken back to Gaza as hostages.

"We are very close to making a deal on the Middle East that will bring peace to the Middle East after all of these years," Trump said at the start of an Oval Office meeting with Carney.

Asked what security guarantees the United States was willing to offer, Trump pledged help without offering specifics.

"We are going to do everything possible - we have a lot of power - and we're going to do everything possible to make sure everybody adheres to the deal," he said.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Steve Holland, Editing by Franklin Paul and Rod Nickel)