CIA Director William Burns is anticipated to journey to Cairo subsequent Tuesday to proceed hostage talks after Hamas delivered a brand new set of situations to the Qatari authorities days in the past, a number of sources confirmed to CBS Information. acquainted with the matter.
Qatar's Prime Minister and Overseas Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani may also attend.
Whereas Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly rejected Hamas' newest counterproposal Talking “delusionally” in an impassioned information convention Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken later stated the response included some failures but additionally supplied “room” for an eventual deal.
Burns, whom the Biden administration has tapped to guide US efforts in hostage talks, met Late final month in Paris with Sheikh Mohammed, in addition to the top of Egyptian intelligence, Abbas Kamel, and David Barnea, head of Israel's Mossad, to hammer out a proposal involving the discharge of the roughly 130 hostages nonetheless They’re being held in Gaza in alternate for longer breaks. within the combat. That assembly was additionally attended by officers from Israel's inner safety service, the Shin Guess.
It was not instantly clear whether or not the identical contributors would meet once more in Cairo. The CIA declined to touch upon Burns' journey.
Will probably be the fifth spherical of talks for Burns, who additionally participated in negotiations with the Mossad chief and the Qatari prime minister in Poland. in Decemberand twice traveled to Doha, Qatar, in November, when the primary and solely settlement was reached.
That settlement resulted within the launch of greater than 100 hostages, tons of of Palestinian prisoners and a seven-day pause in combating.
In its newest counteroffer, Hamas outlined a gradual launch of various classes of hostages in alternate for 45-day pauses in combating and an eventual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. The group additionally demanded the discharge of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, in addition to new assist flows and commitments to rebuild Gaza.
The textual content of the counterproposal was delivered to the Qatari authorities about an hour earlier than Blinken met Tuesday with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani of Qatar, who conveyed its contents to the U.S. delegation. In a joint press convention on Tuesday, Qatari Prime Minister and Overseas Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani known as the response “typically constructive.”
Talking in Washington, President Biden later known as it “a bit of little bit of a stretch,” with out elaborating.