Middle East, the CIA advances: summit with Mossad for truce and hostages

After the meeting between Mossad director David Barnea and the Prime Minister of Qatar, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, which took place on Friday in Oslo, the CIA also takes part in negotiations again to try to reach a new truce. in Gaza and the release of hostages still held by Hamas. William Burns, the longtime ambassador chosen by Joe Biden to lead the Langley agency, flew to Warsaw to join Barnea and Al-Thani for the new meeting that is again taking place in a European capital. Burns’ presence – writes the usually well-informed Barak Ravid in Axios, the first to break the news of today’s meeting in the Polish capital – is very relevant, since the American diplomat who heads the CIA played a decisive role in implementation of the previous agreement that allowed the release of more than 100 hostages last month, including several Americans. Today’s meeting in Warsaw comes after Burns and Egyptian intelligence leaders – another crucial component of negotiations for the first agreement – were briefed on the results of Friday’s meeting in Oslo to relaunch indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas , which sources cited by CNN yesterday described as “positive.”

Friday’s meeting in Oslo came after another trip Barnea was scheduled to take to Doha last week was canceled by the Israeli government. Last Thursday, an Israeli source had in fact said that the war cabinet did not consider that “the conditions were adequate” to resume negotiations, which the United States and Qatar continued to try to relaunch. However, what changed the situation and Israel’s attitude was the news of the murder, by Israeli soldiers in Gaza, of three hostages who had managed to free themselves and who had left a building waving a white flag. “The tragic death of the three hostages breaks my heart, breaks the nation’s heart… we will learn our lesson”, was Benjamin Netanyahu’s comment at a press conference on Saturday night, admitting that the hostages “touched salvation and disaster occurred”, guaranteeing that Israel would continue “all diplomatic and military efforts” to bring all the hostages home. According to sources cited yesterday by CNN, the murder of the hostages gave a greater sense of urgency to the talks that were resumed in Oslo and continue today in Warsaw, also considering that the death of the three doubled the pressure of public opinion on the The Israeli government considers the rescue of hostages a priority over other military objectives.

«Military pressure is necessary for the return of the hostages and for victory. Without military pressure we would have nothing”, said the Israeli Prime Minister at Saturday night’s press conference, in which he reiterated his opposition to his two-state solution and defined the Oslo agreements as “a fatal error”. In any case, Israeli officials quoted today in Axios stressed the importance of Burns’ involvement in reaching any new type of agreement, admitting that it is more difficult to achieve at this time, with the Israeli ground operation underway in Gaza. A situation that would leave little room for negotiations. In recent days, Hamas officials have publicly stated that they are willing to relaunch negotiations for a new hostage agreement only after Israel halts operations in Gaza. The first ceasefire, which came into force on 24 November, allowed the release of 105 hostages in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinian prisoners, and allowed the partial resumption of humanitarian aid in devastated Gaza with the population reduced to the limit by Israeli forces offensive that caused almost 20 thousand victims, and ended on December 1st, with Israel having since begun the ground offensive.

Finally, it should be noted that while the talks are taking place in Warsaw, the US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, is in Tel Aviv for meetings with the leaders of the Israeli government and army to obtain a “very clear explanation” of the Israel’s plans regarding the campaign in Gaza, while the humanitarian situation in the Strip becomes increasingly catastrophic and global calls for a ceasefire grow, with 153 countries having approved the non-binding resolution of the UN General Assembly in this regard, which received just 10 votes against. Austin’s visit follows last week’s visit by White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who revealed that he had clearly told Netanyahu that Washington expects Israel to move in the coming weeks and not in the coming months to a new, smaller phase. aggressive campaign in Gaza.

Source: IL Tempo

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