US: Qatari, Egyptian mediators to talk to Hamas soon, see if there’s a path ahead

BUERGENSTOCK, Switzerland – White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan says that mediators for Qatar and Egypt plan to engage Hamas soon to see if there is a way to push ahead with the Israeli hostage-ceasefire proposal presented by US President Joe Biden.

Sullivan speaks to reporters on the sidelines of a Ukraine peace summit and was asked about diplomatic efforts to get an agreement for Hamas to release some hostages held since October 7 in exchange for a ceasefire lasting at least six weeks.

Sullivan says he spoke briefly to one of the main interlocutors, Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and that they would speak again about Gaza on Sunday while both are in Switzerland for the Ukraine conference.

Biden said Thursday that he doesn’t expect a ceasefire and hostage release deal to be reached in the near future, saying Hamas needs to shift its position closer to Israel’s US-backed proposal on the table.

Hamas insists any agreement must guarantee an end to the war, a demand Israel rejects, even though its proposal apparently provides for a potential permanent cessation of hostilities. Israel has described Hamas’s response to its latest proposal as total rejection.

Sullivan says US officials have taken a close look at Hamas’s response.

“We think some of the edits are not unexpected and can be managed. Some of them are inconsistent both with what President Biden laid out and what the UN Security Council endorsed. And we are having to deal with that reality,” he says.

He says US officials believe there remains an avenue to an agreement and that the next step will be for Qatari and Egyptian mediators to talk to Hamas and “go through what can be worked with and what really can’t be worked with.”

“We anticipate a back-and-forth between the mediators and Hamas. We’ll see where we stand at that point. We will keep consulting with the Israelis and then hopefully at some point next week we’ll be able to report to you where we think things stand and what we see as being the next step to try to bring this to closure,” Sullivan adds.