Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has the final say over whether the terror group would accept a hostage and ceasefire deal, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Maryland on Tuesday.
“As has been the case for some time, it really is on him,” Blinken said, just after Hamas agreed that Sinwar would replace the group’s assassinated leader Ismail Haniyeh.
“The negotiations have reached their final stage, and we believe strongly that they should come across the finish line very, very soon,” Blinken said.
At issue has been a three-phase proposal that would see 115 hostages in Gaza freed in exchange for a lull to the war and the release of Palestinian security prisoners and terrorists from Israeli jails.
Some 18 to 32 lives hostages would be freed during the first phase, set to last for six weeks, as both sides negotiated the issue of a permanent Gaza ceasefire ending the war that began on October 7 when Hamas invaded southern Israel.
The United States has hoped that such a ceasefire would also end the simultaneous cross-border violence between the IDF and the Iranian proxy group Hezbollah along Israel’s northern border.
Iran and Hezbollah
Iranian and Hezbollah retaliatory threats against Israel due to the twin assassinations last week of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut and Haniyeh in Tehran have only increased US determination to finalize the deal.
“It’s critical that all parties work to finalize an agreement as soon as possible,” he said, noting that the US President Joe Biden spoken earlier in the day with Qatari Amir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad al Thani and Egyptian President Fattah El-Sisi about the day. Both countries have been the main mediators for an agreement.
“There’s agreement on the framework. What we’ve been working on for the last few weeks are important details of how that is actually implemented,” Blinken said.
“There were some things that had to be negotiated in that process” and work on that has continued in the last weeks he explained.
“This is really a time for all of the parties involved to close this out,” Blinken said. There should be “no delays. No excuses. No reasons why we can’t do something.”
Blinken urged Israel and Hamas to “focus on getting to ‘yes.’”
Blinken warned that Iranian and Hezbollah reprisal attacks risked scuttling the deal.
“The reason, among other things, that we very much want to avoid any escalation is because yes, that has the potential to disrupt concluding the ceasefire agreement,” Blinken said.
“In and of itself, escalation would be a bad thing, but it also has the potential to upend bringing the ceasefire over the line,” Blinken stated.
“We’re doing everything we can, both to avoid escalation” and “to bring the ceasefire agreement to a conclusion,” Blinken said adding that “We won’t stop until we get there.”
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