Blinken in Qatar with a mission to reach a cease-fire agreement in Gaza

2024-08-20 21:48:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Blinken in Qatar with a mission to reach a cease-fire agreement in Gaza

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (centre) arrives in Doha, Qatar, 20 August 2024

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Doha on Tuesday to continue diplomatic efforts to reach an agreement on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of hostages.

However, differences between Israel and Hamas - the Palestinian group designated a terrorist organization by the US and the EU - continue to remain large.

Earlier in the day, Blinken met in Cairo with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, whose country, along with the US and Qatar, are brokering months of on-and-off talks between the parties.

Sisi said after the meeting that the time had come to end the 10-month war in Gaza and warned that the conflict could spill over into a wider regional war.

During his visit to the region, Blinken also held meetings in Israel on Monday. He said that Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has accepted the US proposal for a rapprochement between the two sides, after talks in Qatar last week ended without any progress.

He called on Hamas to accept the proposal. A senior administration official of President Joe Biden told reporters that the US expects ceasefire talks to continue this week.

Hamas has not categorically opposed the US proposal, but has said it overturns what the parties have agreed on so far, without explaining how, and accused Israel and the US of prolonging the talks.

The talks, several months long and interrupted from time to time, have been held around the same issues. Israel says the war can only end after Hamas is destroyed as a political and military force, while Hamas says it will only accept a permanent cease-fire, not a temporary one.

The war in Gaza began on October 7 last year, when Hamas militants swept into southern Israel and killed around 1,200 people and kidnapped more than 250 others, according to Israeli officials.

As a result of the Israeli war, parts of the Gaza Strip have been leveled and at least 40,000 people have been killed, according to health authorities in the enclave.

On Monday, Blinken said that the latest attempt at an agreement is perhaps the best and last chance, and therefore called on both sides to accept the American proposal for the alignment of positions.

Officials from the US, Hamas, Israel, Egypt and Qatar have not explained what the proposal contains, or how it differs from past proposals./ Rel