Blinken wraps up Mideast trip with Gaza deal still elusive
DOHA — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken sought during a whirlwind trip to the Middle East to inject urgency into efforts to broker a Gaza ceasefire deal, but departed the region on Tuesday with an agreement between Israel and Hamas still elusive.
Blinken and mediators from Egypt and Qatar have pinned their hopes on a U.S. “bridging proposal” aimed at narrowing the gaps between the two sides in the 10-month-old war, after negotiations last week paused without a breakthrough.
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The deal “needs to get done, and it needs to get done in the days ahead, and we will do everything possible to get it across the finish line,” Blinken told reporters in Doha before departing for Washington.
A senior Biden administration official travelling with Blinken said the U.S. expects the ceasefire talks to continue this week.
Blinken travelled to Egypt for talks on Tuesday with President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and then to Qatar.
After meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, Blinken said Israel had accepted the proposal and urged Hamas to do the same. The Palestinian group has not explicitly rejected it, but says it overturns previously agreed terms.
Blinken was asked in Qatar about Israeli troop withdrawal terms within the ceasefire framework and about an Axios report that quoted Netanyahu as saying he may have convinced Blinken that Israel should keep troops in the Philadelphi Corridor between Egypt and Gaza.
“The United States does not accept any long-term occupation of Gaza by Israel,” Blinken said. “More specifically, the agreement is very clear on the schedule and the locations of (Israel Defense Forces) withdrawals from Gaza, and Israel has agreed to that. So that’s as much as I know. That’s what I’m very clear about.”
Blinken did not comment directly on the Axios report, a post on social media site X. Netanyahu’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Both Hamas and Egypt oppose Israel keeping troops in the Philadelphi Corridor, but Netanyahu has insisted they are needed to stop weapons being smuggled into Gaza. A senior U.S. official disputed the Axios report earlier on Tuesday.
Egyptian security sources said the U.S. has proposed an international presence in the Philadelphi Corridor area, a suggestion the sources said could be acceptable to Cairo if limited to a maximum of six months.
