Blinken: Hostage deal close, Trump will take over if not finalized

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that mediators were “very close” to reaching a ceasefire and hostage release agreement between Israel and Hamas, although finalization came early time of the next administration.

“I hope we succeed in the time remaining, but failing that, President Biden’s plan for a ceasefire and hostage release will be handed over to the new administration. And when we get this agreement – ​​and it is a fact that we will get it – it will be based on the plan proposed by President Biden last May,” Blinken said during a press conference with his French counterpart in Paris.

The plan unveiled by Biden last May was inspired by an Israeli proposal validated by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with a release of hostages in three stages.

Currently, mediators from the United States, Qatar and Egypt are mainly working on the first phase of this project, during which some hostages – women, elderly people and seriously ill people – would be released in the exchange of hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners, a partial IDF withdrawal from Gaza and a massive influx of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.

Transitional, this ceasefire would last around six weeks and would allow the release of 34 hostages, explain sources well informed of the negotiations in Times of Israel.

Mr. Blinken recalled that the Biden administration had spent a lot of time promoting a post-war Gaza initiative, including provisions for security, management and reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.

“Here too, we are ready to hand over to the administration [Trump] so that she can use it when the opportunity arises,” he added.

He then highlighted the work done by the Biden administration to achieve the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

“All of this is ready to be implemented if the opportunity arises, with a ceasefire in Gaza, as well as agreements on the way forward for the Palestinians,” Blinken added. “So there are huge opportunities there.” »

Blinken said the outgoing administration’s “Day After” plan for Gaza and the plan to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia were ready to be implemented, but both initiatives still face challenges. significant obstacles due to Netanyahu’s refusal to allow the Palestinian Authority to gain a foothold in Gaza and to grant Riyadh’s demand for a two-state solution.

As Blinken talked about opportunities for President-elect Trump to build on the work of the outgoing administration, Biden aides were privately briefing their Trump administration counterparts on ongoing problems in the region.

In one of those briefings with Joel Rayburn, a member of Trump’s transition team and the next assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, State Department officials explained that the entry into force Israeli law passed recently to deal a fatal blow to the UN agency known as UNRWA in Gaza could result in a humanitarian “catastrophe”.

This law in fact prohibits any contact between Israel and UNRWA, which risks seriously harming its activity in the Gaza Strip: it is expected to come into force at the end of the month.

According to the Axios news site, members of the Biden administration told Rayburn that no alternative plan for humanitarian aid to the Palestinians had been proposed.

The outgoing Biden administration is handing over hostage talks to the incoming Trump administration and new Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said Tuesday he would travel to Doha Wednesday evening to participate in the negotiations, which , according to him, could be conclusive.

Before leaving, he was due to speak with Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, Netanyahu’s close confidant, currently in the United States for meetings with top advisers to Biden and Trump.

Witkoff also told N12 on Wednesday that the hostage agreement was Trump’s “priority mission before his inauguration” and that the president-elect had asked him “to do what is necessary to ensure that the agreement is concluded.”

“He prefers a diplomatic solution, but if it doesn’t happen that way, then the consequences will be serious,” Witkoff said.

Trump reiterated Tuesday that “it would be hell” in the Middle East if the hostages were not released by his inauguration on January 20.

According to a source familiar with the matter, Witkoff will undoubtedly work closely with Eric Trager, future senior director of the White House National Security Council for the Middle East and North Africa.

A Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Trager worked at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a pro-Israel think tank in Washington. He will succeed Brett McGurk, who played a major role in shaping outgoing US President Joe Biden’s Middle East policy.

It is unclear whether Trager will have as much influence as his predecessor, given the appointments of Witkoff, his deputy Morgan Ortagus, hostage envoy Adam Boehler and senior adviser for Arab and Middle East affairs. -Orient, Massad Boulos.

Trager has taken hawkish foreign policy positions regarding the Middle East, and his research has focused primarily on Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Also on Wednesday, relatives of the seven American-Israeli hostages still in Gaza announced that they would attend Trump’s inauguration.

While in Washington, the families planned to make contact with members of the new Trump administration and members of Congress, they said together, asking leaders to prioritize the release of their loved ones.

If the Trump and Biden teams are talking about negotiations being close to a conclusion, a senior Arab diplomat involved in the talks told the Times of Israel that significant obstacles remained and progress was slow.

Also on Wednesday, Netanyahu’s cabinet denied a Lebanese media report that negotiators were examining the possibility of a six- to eight-week truce during which Israel would receive the list of hostages still alive.

At the same time, relatives of hostages held in Gaza demonstrated in front of Likud headquarters in Tel Aviv to demand an agreement allowing the release of all hostages without exception. Protesters blocked traffic on King George Street, marching with a sign reading, in English: “End this war. Make a hostage deal now. »