From the Liveblog of
Friday, August 16, 2024
Top US official: Doha summit most constructive 48 hours in months; aim to ink deal next week
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
A senior Biden administration official briefing reporters says the past 48 hours of hostage negotiations in Doha were “the most constructive that we’ve had in many months.”
He says US President Joe Biden just wrapped up calls with President Sissi of Egypt and Emir Tamim of Qatar with all three leaders in agreement that “now is the end game” and discussing the “final bridging proposal” put forward by the US in Doha.
“We will be reconvening in Cairo at this level before the end of next week, with an aim to close out this process once and for all,” the senior administration official says.
Biden also discussed with the leaders what the US is doing to try and deter Iran from carrying out a retaliatory attack against Israel, warning that the consequences for Tehran and the entire region would be very serious if it goes forward with such a strike, the official says.
Turning to the last two days of talks, the official notes that the Israeli team dispatched to Doha was “clearly empowered,” in an apparent nod to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has come under fire for not giving his negotiators enough leeway to secure a deal.
While Hamas didn’t participate in-person in the Thursday and Friday meetings, its representatives are already in Doha and were able to engage with Qatari and Egyptian mediators over the past two days, the senior US official says.
All three mediating countries believe that the final bridging proposal submitted on Friday by the US closes just about all remaining gaps between the parties, the official says.
This proposal is based on the one Israel submitted on May 27. That latter offer served as the framework for the speech Biden gave on May 31 in which he revealed key elements of that framework.
On July 3, Hamas submitted its own response to the Israeli proposal, which included some unacceptable amendments and others that were the basis for further discussion, the senior US official says.
On July 27, Israel then issued a paper with a series of “clarifications,” the US official says, notably adopting Netanyahu’s description of the document. Other Qatari, Egypt and Israeli negotiators have described the text as a series of new demands that significantly hampered efforts to reach a deal.
These included a demand for Israel to remain indefinitely in the Philadelphi Corridor between Egypt and Gaza and the establishment of a new mechanism to prevent armed Palestinians from traveling from southern to northern Gaza.
“What we’ve done is taken the gaps that remain and bridged them in a way that a deal is now ready to close,” the senior US official says.
The official clarifies that there is still more work to do and that working groups from the sides will be convening in the coming days to talk about issues, such as the list of hostages and prisoners being released and the sequencing of those releases. Much of the last two days was spent discussing these issues known as the “keys.”
The working groups will also discuss the establishment of an “implementation cell” for the deal that will determine how the hostage-prisoner exchange will be carried out and how it will be monitored to ensure compliance. The cell will also discuss the implementation of the humanitarian aspects of the deal, including the surge of aid into Gaza, the clearing of rubble and rehabilitation of service, the senior official says.
The top officials who met in Doha over the past two days will reconvene in Cairo toward the end of next week, aiming to finalize the deal.
“The bottom line after two days in Doha [is that] we wanted to get this process back on track. We very much have done that. The consensus of all the participants here over the last 48 hours is that there’s a new spirit here to drive this to a conclusion,” the senior US official adds.
Referencing some of the Palestinian security prisoners who Israel will have to release as part of this deal, the senior US official acknowledges that some aspects of it are “heart-wrenching.”
However, he says the primary reason to move forward with the deal is to save the lives of the hostages in Gaza. “If you continue to negotiate for months and months and try to get a perfect deal… you risk having no hostages left to save.”
The official clarifies that the hostage release deal would be conducted in a way that “ensures Israel’s security interests.”
