CIA Director Bill Burns is expected in Cairo for talks on freeing hostages held in Gaza, which the White House confirms will take place this weekend with US representation.
US media reports that Burns will meet in the Egyptian capital with Mossad chief David Barnea, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani and Egypt’s intelligence chief Abbas Kamel.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby declines to say if Burns would be involved, but tells journalists that “the United States will be present for those talks.”
Kirby also says one of US President Joe Biden’s requests to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a call yesterday was “getting back at the table in negotiations in Cairo and getting a hostage deal done, empowering his negotiators to come to [a] conclusion on this.”
The US, Qatar and Egypt have been engaged in weeks of behind-the-scenes talks in a bid to secure a truce in the Gaza Strip and the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian security prisoners being held in Israeli jails.
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