US Secretary of State Antony Blinken appeared to douse hopes that a hostage deal was immediately in the offing, as he described Hamas’s demand for changes to the proposal as unworkable, even as he noted that talks would continue.
“Hamas has proposed numerous changes to the proposal that was on the table.... Some of the changes are workable, some are not,” Blinken said during a joint press conference in Doha on Wednesday with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed al-Thani.
He arrived in Doha after visits to Egypt, Israel and Jordan this week, in a push to finalize the three-phase agreement first unveiled by US President Joe Biden on May 31.
Upcoming G7
Biden, who is heading to a G7 meeting in Italy on Thursday, is expected to raise the issue there.
Israel has agreed to the deal, which has the backing of the EU, the G7, and lastly, the UN Security Council, which on Monday night voted to support it 14-0, with Russia abstaining.
The US had hoped that faced with such international consensus, Hamas would accept the deal, and some of its comments had initially seemed promising in the aftermath of the UNSC vote.
According to Hamas’s response to the mediators late Tuesday night, however, the group was far from taking that step.
Egyptian sources
Two Egyptian sources and a third source with knowledge of the talks said Hamas had concerns that the current proposal does not provide explicit guarantees over the transition from the first phase of the plan, which includes a six-week truce and the release of humanitarian hostages, to the second phase, which if both sides agree would include a permanent ceasefire and the release of the remaining live hostages.
“Hamas wants reassurances of an automatic transition from one phase to another as per the agreement laid out by President Biden,” the third source said, indicating that Hamas didn’t want the issue of a permanent ceasefire up for debate.
It has insisted from the start that there must be a pledge from Israel to halt the war and withdraw from Gaza before any of the remaining 120 hostages would be freed.
An Israeli official speaking on condition of anonymity said that Hamas had “changed all of the main and most meaningful parameters,” characterizing the group’s response as a rejection of Biden’s proposal for a hostage release.
One non-Israeli official briefed on the matter, who also declined to be identified, said that in its response, Hamas had proposed a new timeline for a permanent ceasefire with Israel and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, including Rafah.
KAN News reported that Hamas also wanted China, Russia, and Turkey to be guarantors of the deal. China and Russia are permanent UN Security Council members and as such, already have a role in the process through that 15-member body.
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan denied that the Palestinian Islamist group had put forward new ideas. Speaking to pan-Arab Al-Araby TV, he reiterated Hamas’s stance that it was Israel that was rejecting proposals and accused the US administration of going along with its close ally to “evade any commitment” to a blueprint for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
Earlier on Wednesday, Izzat al-Rishq, from Hamas’s political bureau based outside Gaza, said its formal response to the American proposal was “responsible, serious and positive” and “opens up a wide pathway” for an accord.
US officials did not provide details with respect to the issues that Hamas had raised. Blinken in his conversation with reporters put the onus on Hamas for the delay in finalizing the deal, as he urged the group to accept it.
The deal, he said, is virtually identical to the one that Hamas put forward on May 6, but the group took nearly two weeks to respond – and then when it did, it proposed several changes “which go beyond positions it had previously taken and accepted.”
“I can’t speak for Hamas or answer for Hamas – and ultimately, it may not be the path that Hamas wants to pursue – but Hamas cannot and will not be allowed to decide the future for this region and its people,” Blinken said.
“At some point in a negotiation – and this has gone back and forth for a long time – you get to a point where if one side continues to change its demands, including making demands and insisting on changes for things that it already accepted, you have to question whether they’re proceeding in good faith or not,” the secretary of state said.
Still, he noted that Egypt and Qatar, which have been the main mediators of the deal, would push forward with continued talks with Hamas “to try to close this deal, because we know it’s in the interests of Israelis, Palestinians, the region: indeed the entire world.”
Al-Thani said, “Pressure needs to be on both parties” as he appeared to blame Israel’s military activity in Rafah for some of the difficulties in closing the deal.
“Also, we have seen a lot of contradicting statements from different Israeli officials. That also requires a lot of pressure on them as well as the other party,” he stated.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan struck a more positive note when he said that “many of the proposed changes are minor and not unanticipated. Others differ more substantively from what was outlined in the UN Security Council resolution.
“The United States will now work with the mediators, specifically Egypt and Qatar, to bridge final gaps,” he said.
“Our aim is to bring this process to a conclusion. Our view is that the time for haggling is over. It’s time for a ceasefire to begin and for the hostages to come home.”
While he was in Israel, Blinken met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, opposition leader MK Yair Lapid who heads the Yesh Atid Party, MK Benny Gantz who heads the National Unity Party, and families of the eight hostages with dual US-Israeli citizenship.