US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday expressed frustration that Hamas has submitted “numerous changes” to a US-backed proposal for a ceasefire and release of hostages in Gaza – a development that casts further doubt on the prospects of quickly securing the deal the US hopes will bring “...
Definitely a political play to blame hamas. Not too different from past negotiations where the israelis send unreasonable deals and when they send back amendements they say "look, we tried but its them"
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday expressed frustration that Hamas has submitted “numerous changes” to a US-backed proposal for a ceasefire and release of hostages in Gaza – a development that casts further doubt on the prospects of quickly securing the deal the US hopes will bring “an enduring end” to the war.
He did not go into specific details about the changes, but he continued to cast exclusive blame for the stalling of the deal – and the prolonging of the suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza – on the US-designated terrorist group, not on Israel.
“Hamas’s requests would ultimately undermine the phased nature of the proposal on which agreement rests,” the senior administration official said Wednesday.
“In the coming weeks, we will put forward proposals for key elements of the ‘day after’ plan, including concrete ideas for how to manage governance, security, reconstruction,” the top US diplomat said, without providing further details.
Still, any movement on any of those aspects is contingent on an end to the fighting in Gaza, which has claimed the lives of more than 37,000 Palestinians and left the strip in what aid officials have described as an “unprecedented” humanitarian catastrophe.
“In the days ahead, we are going to continue to push on an urgent basis with our partners, with Qatar, with Egypt, to try to close this deal,” Blinken said Wednesday as he wrapped up his eighth round of shuttle diplomacy since the October 7 Hamas attack.
The original article contains 880 words, the summary contains 246 words. Saved 72%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!