From the Liveblog of
Monday, August 26, 2024
US official: Cairo hostage talks were constructive, all sides interested in inking deal
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
A US official tells The Times of Israel that the hostage talks held in Cairo the past several days have been “constructive and were conducted in the spirit of reaching a final and implementable agreement with all sides share that sentiment.”
“The process will continue over the coming days through working groups to further address remaining issues and details,” the US official says.
Notably, US officials appear to be the only party in the talks who sound hopeful about their trajectory.
Despite the US official’s optimistic framing, the Biden administration had last week indicated it was aiming to have a deal reached by now.
On August 16, the US submitted what it branded as a “final bridging proposal” to Israel and Hamas, adding that lower-level negotiating teams would subsequently meet to work out the disputes between the sides before top officials reconvened this weekend to ink a deal.
But midway through last week, talk of an imminent finalization of the deal dissipated. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters after visiting the region that additional agreements on implementing the agreement would have to be reached if Hamas agrees to the US proposal, appearing to add another step in the process until a ceasefire would take effect.
Indeed, the fact that lower-level “working groups” are again reconvening suggests the sides are not yet ready for their top decision-makers to finalize a deal.
Still, a US source familiar with the negotiations explains that progress has been made over the past four days in Cairo.
The sides negotiated based on the US bridging proposal, which incorporated details from US President Joe Biden’s May 31 speech and UN Security Council Resolution 2735, which have served as the framework for talks along with subsequent clarifications from Hamas and Israel, the source explains.
This past Thursday, an Israeli negotiating team met US and Egyptian mediators in Cairo in an effort to narrow the remaining gaps and clarify outstanding issues that Jerusalem had with the bridging proposal. The US and Egyptian mediators then held bilateral consultations the next day. On Saturday, Qatari and Egyptian mediators sat down with senior Hamas negotiators to walk them through each clause of the US bridging proposal, identifying any outstanding issues and answering any questions that the terror group had, the US source says.
On Sunday, Israeli negotiators rejoined the talks with the US and Egyptian mediators to further narrow gaps, the source adds, stressing that the talks were ongoing.
