Biden, on reaching Gaza ceasefire, says his and Trump envoys ‘speaking as one team’

“Many peacemakers helped make this deal happen,” President Biden said. It “was developed and negotiated under my administration, but its terms will be implemented… by the next administration.”

President Biden, heralding the reaching of a Gaza ceasefire/hostage release deal today in Doha, Qatar, said in the past few days, his and his successor Donald Trump’s envoys “have been speaking as one team.”

“The Bible says, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers.’ Many peacemakers helped make this deal happen, including an extraordinary team of American diplomats who have worked non-stop for months to get this done,” President Biden, flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, said in remarks at the White House’s Cross Hall today (Jan. 15).

“This deal was developed and negotiated under my administration, but its terms will be implemented for the most part by the next administration,” Biden continued. “In these past few days, we’ve been speaking as one team.”

While the terms of the three-phase deal are similar to one that had been proposed by Biden back in May, progress towards a deal has accelerated in recent weeks in part because Hamas has been isolated including by the setbacks faced by its regional allies, including Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and the fall of former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, US officials said.

But days before the change in US administrations, it was critical have the visible support of the Trump team at the negotiations because the United States is one of the deal’s guarantors, and there are commitments in the deal that will be carried out after current administration leaves, said State Department spokesman Matt Miller. That is especially needed in turning the temporary ceasefire in the first phase of the deal, which is due to last for six weeks, into a more lasting ceasefire in phase 2, the details of which are to be finalized in negotiations over the next six weeks.

“When it comes to the involvement of President-elect Trump's team, it has been absolutely critical in getting this deal over the line, and it's been critical because obviously, as I stand here today, this administration's term in office will expire in five days,” Miller told journalists at the State Department today, in what was expected to be his final briefing. “And one of the things that we have always said about this deal is that when you get from stage one to stage two, that… Egypt and Qatar will push Hamas to stay at the bargaining table and to get from stage one to stage two, and the United States will push Israel to stay at the bargaining table to get from phase one and phase two.

“So obviously, those are promises we cannot make on behalf of the United States for any longer than the next five days,” Miller continued. “And so it's critical that all of the parties to the agreement and the other mediators see that when the United States is in the room making commitments, those are lasting commitments that extend beyond this administration into the next one.”

Over the last 96 hours, Biden’s envoy Brett McGurk was joined by President Trump's incoming Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff at negotiations in Doha, Qatar, a senior US administration official said.

“That was especially critical here, because we all recognize that, given that this deal would [start with] a 42 day, phase one ceasefire, and we hope it will last much longer than that, that it will be implemented by the new administration,” the senior US administration official, speaking not for attribution, said on a call with journalists tonight.

In the weeks since the US elections, at the direction of Biden, national security advisor Jake Sullivan has been speaking regularly with incoming Trump national security advisor Michael Waltz.

“And since then, Steve and Brett have been talking regularly about the process. Brett has been keeping Steve fully informed,” the senior US official said. “And four days ago, Steve Witkoff came out to [Doha to] join Brett in this final push, which I think is historically almost unprecedented. And it was a highly constructive, very fruitful partnership.”

The negotiations in recent days have been taking place at a two-story building in Doha, Qatar, with the Hamas delegation working on the first floor, and the Israeli delegation on the second floor, the senior US administration official said.

“Hamas is on the first floor, and Israel negotiators are on the second floor, and our counterparts from Egypt and Qatar do a lot of shuttling in-between,” the senior US official said.

In the first phase of the deal, which is due to start Sunday, the parties expect to see the release of 33 Israeli hostages, including women, the sick and elderly. The senior US official said he expected that two of three living American hostages to be released in the first phase of the deal, Keith Siegel and Sagui Dekel-Chen. A third Israeli American hostage, Idan Alexander, who was serving as an IDF soldier on Oct. 7, is expected to be released in a next phase of the deal, and the bodies of four American hostages believed to have already died will be returned.

Negotiators will attend a meeting in Cairo, Egypt tomorrow focused on ironing out last details of the implementation of the deal, the senior US official said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, seemingly hedging on accepting a deal that hard right members of his coalition reject, issued a readout of calls he held with Trump and Biden, but said that he would not be making an official statement until “after the completion of the final details of the agreement, which are being worked on at present.”

Videos posted online showed people in Gaza celebrating news of the ceasefire agreement reached, and an uptick in trucks of humanitarian aid trucks flowing into Gaza.

Photo: Palestinians celebrate the announcement of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, January 15, 2025. AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana.

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