President Biden and representatives of Egypt and Qatar on Thursday urged Israel and Hamas to meet next week to close “remaining gaps” in a ceasefire framework agreement that would likely be derailed if Iran or its proxies attack the Jewish state.
“The three of us and our teams have been working tirelessly for months. We now have a framework agreement in place, and we just need to finalize the implementation details,” Biden, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said at the meeting. Joint Statement.
“We can no longer waste time and no party has any excuse for further delay,” they added. “The time has come to release the hostages, initiate a ceasefire and implement this agreement.”
“We stand ready to present a final bridging proposal to resolve the remaining implementation issues in a manner that meets the expectations of all parties,” the three said.
However, the situation is precarious.
“If they were to join forces with other groups and threaten major attacks on Israel and start a major war in the Middle East, that would clearly put any hopes of a ceasefire in Gaza in serious jeopardy,” a senior administration official briefed reporters on the status of ceasefire talks said on Thursday.
Iran has threatened to attack Israel directly over the assassination of Hamas supreme leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
According to reports, the Iranian-backed terrorist organization Hezbollah is also expected to attack Israel in the coming days, separate from a possible attack from Iran.
The Lebanon-based terrorist group is plotting to avenge the death of senior Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukr, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike last week, and it is not waiting for a response from its backers in Tehran. A source told CNN.
The joint letter made no mention of any imminent threat from Iran.
A senior administration official said an agreement is unlikely to be concluded before next Thursday, noting that “there is still a lot of work to be done.”
The official said Israel seemed “very favorable” to the Agreed Framework and that Iran’s U.N. ambassador also supported it. I believe a ceasefire is near Until it’s completed.
The administration official insisted the US was “prepared for any contingency” if an Iranian attack on Israel were to begin.
“We have moved significant military forces to the region, including F-22 fighter jets which arrived today,” the official said, emphasizing a “large and significant military deployment” to the Middle East to counter the Iranian threat.
