The report, which cited senior figures in the White House, State Department, and Pentagon—without naming them—suggests that while progress has been made in the talks, key issues remain unresolved.
“No deal is imminent,” one of the US officials said. “I'm not sure it ever gets done.”
At the same time, the officials said that the administration will not stop its pursuit of an agreement, as they view it as the only way to end the war in Gaza and stop the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
The United States has been pushing an outline for a ceasefire and hostage release deal that President Joe Biden first laid out in May, but Hamas has continuously rejected every proposal that has been presented to it.
Last week, Hamas once again said that its negotiators reiterated the group’s readiness to implement an "immediate" ceasefire with Israel in Gaza based on a previous US proposal without new conditions from any party.
Despite Hamas’ rejection of all previous proposals, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken downplayed pessimism over the prospects of a hostage release deal, saying that the US will present a new proposal for a deal “very soon”.
“On the ceasefire, here’s what I can tell you: More than 90 percent of the issues have been agreed, decided. So we’re down to a handful of issues – not even a handful of issues – that are hard but fully resolvable, in our judgment. And as we’ve said before, when you get down to the last 10 percent, the last 10 meters, those are, almost by definition, the hardest ground to cover. But we believe that these are fully resolvable,” Blinken told reporters last week.
“Right now, we’re working intensely with our Egyptian and Qatari counterparts to work together to bridge any remaining gaps. And in the coming time, very soon, we’ll put that before the parties and we’ll see what they say,” he added.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday that the US continues to collaborate with mediators from Egypt and Qatar to draft a revised ceasefire proposal.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that an agreement is ultimately dependent on political will.
“We continue to work with Egypt and Qatar to find a way forward in the negotiations that will be acceptable to both parties. But as hard as we are going to work on texts and creative formulas, this is ultimately a question of political will,” Thomas-Greenfield stated. Israel National News - Arutz Sheva
