White Home nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan mentioned on Saturday that mediators for Qatar and Egypt plan to interact Hamas militants quickly to see if there’s a method to push forward with a Gaza ceasefire proposal offered by US President Joe Biden.
Sullivan spoke to reporters on the sidelines of a Ukraine peace summit and was requested about diplomatic efforts to get an settlement for Hamas to launch some hostages held since Oct. 7 in change for a ceasefire lasting not less than six weeks.
Sullivan mentioned he had spoken briefly to one of many foremost interlocutors, Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and that they’d converse once more about Gaza on Sunday whereas each are in Switzerland for the Ukraine convention.
Hamas has welcomed the ceasefire proposal, however insists any settlement should safe an finish to the warfare, a requirement Israel nonetheless rejects. Israel described Hamas’s response to the brand new US peace proposal as whole rejection.
Sullivan mentioned that US officers have taken an in depth have a look at Hamas’s response. “We predict among the edits aren’t sudden and could be managed. A few of them are inconsistent each with what President Biden laid out and what the UN Safety Council endorsed. And we’re having to cope with that actuality,” he mentioned.
He mentioned US officers imagine there stays an avenue to an settlement and that the following step will probably be for Qatari and Egyptian mediators to speak to Hamas and “undergo what could be labored with and what actually cannot be labored with.”
“We anticipate a back-and-forth between the mediators and Hamas. We’ll see the place we stand at that time. We’ll preserve consulting with the Israelis after which hopefully in some unspecified time in the future subsequent week we’ll be capable to report back to you the place we predict issues stand and what we see as being the following step to attempt to convey this to closure,” he mentioned.