A U.S. delegation led by Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, joined by former British prime minister Tony Blair
By Bernard Moerdler,
A U.S. delegation led by Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, joined by former British prime minister Tony Blair, met a Hamas delegation headed by Khalil al-Hayya in Egypt today and pressed Hamas to begin disarming, according to Barak Ravid of Axios. The delegation also met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who stressed the strategic relationship between Cairo and Washington, the Egyptian presidency said. Kushner called Egypt a "key partner" of the United States in the Middle East. Reuters reported that Kushner and Nickolay Mladenov, chief executive of the Board of Peace, held a series of meetings with mediators from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, and that a diplomatic source said Hamas representatives were present at some of them, confirming the Cairo contacts were not indirect alone.
Hamas said it told the mediators and Arab officials in Cairo that it accepts the roadmap for the second phase of the Trump plan, which Mladenov presented on behalf of the Board of Peace. Hamas said its agreement stems from a desire for a permanent ceasefire, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, sustained humanitarian aid, the start of work by the administrative committee and the fulfillment of the remaining commitments. Hamas called on the mediators and the Board of Peace to compel Israel to implement all of its first-phase commitments, to halt what Hamas called violations, and to begin setting a timetable for the second phase.
The delegation is expected in Israel tomorrow for meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials, where it intends to seek parallel Israeli withdrawals from Gaza if Hamas begins disarming, according to Walla. Al-Hayya met Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad in El Alamein today, and the two discussed advancing the roadmap and bridging the disputes holding up its implementation. A Hamas official told Asharq Al-Awsat that the group hopes for a breakthrough that would bring Israeli agreement to the roadmap, and described the optimism as cautious. The same outlet reported that the Hamas delegation includes members of its negotiating team, among them Zaher Jabarin.
Hamas accepted the plan Mladenov presented at the end of July, and the Israeli government rejected it. Under the plan Washington is advancing, military activity in Gaza would stop, Hamas would disarm alongside a phased IDF withdrawal, and control of the territory would pass to a new Palestinian civil administration. Mladenov told the mediators that the Israeli refusal stems from the early start of campaigning ahead of general elections at the end of October, sources said. Trump continues to back the agreement and wants it implemented once conditions ripen, after the Israeli elections and the formation of a new government, according to diplomatic sources. Those sources said the administration understands Netanyahu's position and prefers to wait, while pressing to narrow the scope of Israeli strikes out of concern the agreement with Hamas will collapse.
Topics: Gaza, IDF, Israeli Politics
Reported by Bernard Moerdler for Bernie News Network. See our editorial standards and corrections policy.