US President Joe Biden and his elected counterpart Donald Trump seem to be racing against time to reach an agreement on the release of hostages and a ceasefire in Gaza.
Hostage deal “very close”
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday that Biden will most likely talk to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the near term.
This came as officials of the current US administration are racing against time to reach an agreement before Biden leaves office on January 20.
Sullivan added in an interview to the network, ” C.The.The parties concerned are “very close” to reaching an agreement to stop the fighting in the Palestinian Strip and free the remaining 98 hostages there.
He said Biden was following daily updates on the talks in Doha, where Israeli and Palestinian officials said on Thursday that some progress had been made in indirect talks between Israel and Hamas.
“We remain determined to use every day we have left in power to accomplish this task,” he said, adding that Biden “is likely, in the short term, to communicate with Prime Minister Netanyahu, and we do not exclude this in any way”.
He said there was still a chance of reaching an agreement before Biden leaves office, but it was also possible that “Hamas, in particular, will remain intransigent”.
Trump personally intervenes
An Israeli source revealed on Saturday that US President-elect Donald Trump has begun to personally intervene in the file of the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s Channel 12 quoted an informed source as saying that in the last two days Trump has begun to personally intervene in the issue of the release of detainees, and he is “interested in completing the agreement as soon as possible before he takes office”.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu met on Saturday with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who arrived in Israel on a surprise visit amid developments in hostage release negotiations.
On Saturday evening, the Israeli Prime Minister’s office announced that Netanyahu had decided to send the head of the Mossad to Qatar for talks on the hostages.
Observers had considered Trump’s sending of his envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff to the Qatari capital Doha to discuss the hostage crisis a precedent of its kind, despite not officially taking over at the White House.
The first time
This is the first time in the history of the United States that a president-elect has sent his delegation to another country to discuss a specific issue, despite the fact that the current administration continues to perform its functions.
On Sunday, Trump’s national security adviser said negotiations between Hamas and Israel were “literally happening as we speak”.
Mike Waltz, in an interview with ABC News, added: “Let’s allow the release of our hostages. I want to see them walk across the runway, or at least, (I want to see) some kind of agreement before the inauguration because President Trump is serious,”he said.
“Anything else will only make things worse for Hamas, and there will be hell in the Middle East if we continue to practice this kind of hostage diplomacy, “he said.
