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The White House announced that the cease-fire and hostage deal discussions between Hamas and Israel would resume next week in Cairo after the U.S. offered a “bridging proposal” to seal a deal.
The U.S. said that the two days of talks in Doha were “serious and constructive” and that Washington, represented by CIA Director William Burns, offered ideas to close an agreement toward ending the 10-month conflict.
“This proposal builds on areas of agreement over the past week, and bridges remaining gaps in the manner that allows for a swift implementation of the deal,” said a White House statement signed by co-mediators Qatar and Egypt.
“Senior officials from our governments will reconvene in Cairo before the end of next week with the aim to conclude the deal under the terms put forward today,” it said.
Until the talks reconvene in Cairo, working-level teams will work out details including humanitarian provisions and practicalities for the release of hostages, it said.
President Joe Biden called for the two-day talks in Doha in a rare joint statement last week with the leaders of Qatar and Egypt.
In that statement, Biden, President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani said, “There is no further time to waste nor excuses from any party for further delay. It is time to release the hostages and detainees, begin the cease-fire, and implement this agreement.”
Friday’s statement said: “The path is now set for that outcome, saving lives, bringing relief to the people of Gaza, and de-escalating regional tensions.”
Egypt says Gaza truce ‘key’ to preventing regional war
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said in Beirut Friday that a Gaza cease-fire was the “key” to preventing the region from slipping into all-out war.
Cairo, Doha and Washington are making every effort to quickly reach a Gaza deal “that leads to an immediate ceasefire, an end to the killing of civilians, and a prisoner and hostage exchange”, Abdelatty said after meeting his Lebanese counterpart Abdallah Bou Habib.
“This is the key to the start of the solution in this region and the start of de-escalation,” he said.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah has traded near daily fire with the Israeli army in support of ally Hamas since Oct. 7.
But the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran late last month in an attack blamed on Israel, hours after an Israeli strike killed a top Hezbollah commander in Lebanon, has sent diplomats scrambling to avert a wider conflict after Iran and Hezbollah vowed to respond.
Abdelatty expressed hope for “good intentions and the political will to reach this urgent deal” in Gaza, which he said would lead to “reducing the level of tension in the region, and de-escalation.”
Cairo would “make every possible effort to spare Lebanon and its brotherly people the woes of any uncalculated escalation,” he added.
The cross-border violence has killed some 570 people in Lebanon, including at least 118 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, 22 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed, according to army figures.
Hezbollah and Israel fought a devastating war in 2006.
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