{"id":708,"date":"2024-08-17T03:38:54","date_gmt":"2024-08-17T03:38:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/?p=708"},"modified":"2024-08-17T03:38:54","modified_gmt":"2024-08-17T03:38:54","slug":"us-president-joe-biden-warns-against-undermining-gaza-ceasefire-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/us-president-joe-biden-warns-against-undermining-gaza-ceasefire-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"US President Joe Biden Warns Against Undermining Gaza Ceasefire Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">US President Joe Biden has warned all parties involved in negotiations for a possible cease-fire agreement in Gaza not to jeopardize efforts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Biden said &#8220;we are closer than we&#8217;ve ever been\u201d to a ceasefire after the latest round of negotiations, but a senior Hamas official was skeptical.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The president also announced that he would send Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Israel to continue the &#8220;intensive efforts to close this agreement.&#8221;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">His comments followed a joint statement from the United States, Qatar and Egypt, saying they had put forward a proposed ceasefire and hostage release deal that would &#8220;close the gap&#8221; between Israel and Hamas.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Any sign of progress in Qatar&#8217;s negotiations is seen as essential by governments desperate to prevent the war in Gaza from developing into a full-blown regional conflict.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mediators said the past two days of ceasefire talks had been \u201cserious, constructive and conducted in a positive atmosphere.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Technical teams are expected to continue working in the coming days on the details of the implementation of the proposed terms before senior government officials meet in Cairo, with the hope to reach an agreement on the terms set in Doha.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Biden later said in a statement that he had separately discussed with the leaders of Qatar and Egypt, who\u00a0 expressed strong backing for the proposal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He added that he was also sending Blinken to the Middle East to reaffirm his unwavering support for Israel&#8217;s security and to emphasize that with the complete ceasefire agreement and the release of hostages now in view, no one in the region should take steps to undermine this process\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While the mediators&#8217; statement is clearly a positive development, there is still much to be done before a ceasefire can be reached.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, Blinken told US reporters that he had become more optimistic than ever about the possibility of a deal, but said that if he gave the reason, he\u2019d \u201cgive it away&#8221;.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Asked when a possible ceasefire could begin, he said &#8220;that remains to be seen.&#8221;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is not the first time the US president has expressed optimism that he thinks a deal is close, and not everyone shares his cautious optimism.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A senior Hamas official &#8211; who did not take part in the talks but was in contact with Qatari and Egyptian officials &#8211; told the BBC:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhat the movement\u2019s leadership was informed of today regarding the results of the Doha ceasefire meetings does not include a commitment to implement what was agreed upon on 2 July.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu&#8217;s office said he appreciated the efforts made to discourage Hamas from rejecting a deal that would release the hostages.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented attack in southern Israel on October 7, in which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Source: BBC News\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US President Joe Biden has warned all parties involved in negotiations for a possible cease-fire agreement in Gaza not to jeopardize efforts.\u00a0 Biden said &#8220;we are closer than we&#8217;ve ever been\u201d to a ceasefire after the latest round of negotiations, but a senior Hamas official was skeptical.\u00a0 The president also announced that he would send [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[113],"tags":[1373,1379],"class_list":["post-708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world","tag-hamas","tag-israel-gaza-conflict"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}