From the Liveblog of
Friday, March 22, 2024
Blinken heads to Israel on next leg of regional tour amid truce efforts in Gaza war
Secretary of State Antony Blinken will arrive in Israel later today to press for a temporary truce in Gaza, ahead of a key UN Security Council vote on a US draft resolution calling for an “immediate” ceasefire.
Washington said it would submit for a vote on Friday a draft to the Security Council on the need for an “immediate ceasefire as part of a hostage deal.”
After talks in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Blinken will travel to Israel, his sixth trip to the region since the war began with Hamas’s shock attack on Israel on October 7.
“Negotiators continue to work. The gaps are narrowing, and we’re continuing to push for an agreement in Doha. There’s still difficult work to get there. But I continue to believe it’s possible,” Blinken said on Thursday.
The main sticking point has been that Hamas says it will release hostages only as part of a deal that would end the war, while Israel says it will discuss only a temporary pause.
The US had hoped to secure a six-week ceasefire and hostage deal by the start of Ramadan on March 10 but successive rounds of talks have yet to bear fruit, with Washington largely blaming Hamas for the standoff.
“We worked very hard with Qatar, Egypt and Israel to put a strong proposal on the table… Hamas wouldn’t accept it. They came back with other demands. The negotiators are working on that right now, but I believe it’s very much doable, and it’s very much necessary,” Blinken said.
“If Hamas cares at all about the people it purports to represent, then it would reach an agreement because that would have the immediate effect of a ceasefire, alleviating the tremendous suffering of people, bringing more humanitarian assistance in and then giving us the possibility of having something more lasting,” he added.
