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Biden warns all sides not to ‘undermine’ Gaza truce push
US President Joe Biden has warned all sides not to undermine efforts for a ceasefire in Gaza, as he said that a deal was nearing.
Biden said in a statement that Secretary of State Antony Blinken was travelling to the Middle East in part “to underscore that with the comprehensive ceasefire and hostage release deal now in sight, no one in the region should take actions to undermine this process”.
Later on, he told reporters that although he’s “optimistic” about the prospect of a deal being agreed on, nothing is guaranteed.
“As of an hour ago, it’s still in play. I’m optimistic. It’s far from over,” he said on Friday night. “There’s a couple more issues. I think we’ve got a shot.” When asked when the truce would start if agreed to, Biden said: “That remains to be seen.”
The sudden condemnation of the Settler attack on Jit does give a little hope the message is getting through in Israel.
Or not
Israeli official says expectations over ceasefire deal should be lower
We do have anonymous sources speaking to Israeli media who have said that, yes, progress has been made towards reaching a ceasefire deal but Netanyahu’s stance is still quite tough.
And one Israeli official speaking, anonymously of course, to the state public broadcaster has said that the progress that was made was only on the Israeli side and Israel should be lowering expectations amid all of this US optimism because, while there has been momentum, and progress has been made towards reaching a deal, it’s still not quite clear if that’s going to happen.
The same Israeli official has said that a smaller, technical Israeli team will remain in Doha until Sunday, while another Israeli delegation will be dispatched to Cairo for the continuation of the talks.
Key stumbling blocks preventing ceasefire have ‘not been bridged at all’
Omar Rahman, a fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, told Al Jazeera he is sceptical that a ceasefire deal is close to being agreed upon as the details have not been released and it is hard to see how the key stumbling blocks could have been overcome.
“But the stumbling blocks in the past have not been over the details; they haven’t been over how many prisoners were released and on what day etc. It’s been over fundamentals, and the very fundamental divide is that Netanyahu has said he has no plans to end the war any time soon and that as soon as the hostages are released, he’ll go back to fighting,” Rahman said, speaking from New York.
“[However] Hamas wants a permanent end to the hostilities and an end to the Israeli presence in the Gaza Strip. So that is a very fundamental [divide] that has not been bridged at all and we don’t know how that is going to be overcome in this new deal.”
Rahman said there is no guarantee that a deal will progress from stage one, in which the hostages are released, to stage two, which would mean a permanent end to the fighting.
“The problem is, the only one pushing Israel or having leverage over Israel – the United States – has been unwilling to use that leverage to make those types of guarantees,” he said.
“And so there’s no trust from the other parties, from Hamas, on what the Israelis are going to commit to and if the United States is going to be there to make Israel commit to the full terms of the agreement or go from stage one to stage two.”
