Hamas responds to hostage/ceasefire proposal
Blinken: “We are studying it intensely.” Qatar PM Al Thani: “The reply includes some comments, but in general it is positive.”
Hamas has formally responded to the hostage release/ceasefire framework proposal sent last week and its response has been delivered to Israel, Qatar’s Prime Minister announced today (Feb. 6) in Doha, Qatar.
President Biden, later speaking from the White House, confirmed that he had been briefed on the response, but declined to go into details, except to say it was a little over the top.
“There is some movement,” Biden said, following remarks on House and Senate Republicans under pressure from former President Trump to reject a bipartisan supplemental funding bill that would provide military aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan and provide more resources to secure the U.S. southern border.
“There's been a response from…Hamas,” Biden said. “But it seems to be a little over the top….There's continuing negotiation right now.”
Qatar PM: Hamas response ‘includes some comments,’ but ‘in general it is positive’
“First, I would like to inform the media that we have received a reply from Hamas with regards to the general framework of the agreement with regard to the hostages,” Qatar Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani said at a joint press conference with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Doha.
“The reply includes some comments, but in general it is positive,” Al Thani said. “However, given the sensitivity of the circumstances, we will not tackle the details. We are optimistic, and we have delivered the response to the Israeli party.”
Blinken: Hostage/ceasefire deal ‘best path forward’
“The best path forward, the most effective path forward right now to get an extended period of calm and to work toward an end to the conflict is through an agreement on the hostages, and that’s what we’re intensely focused on,” Blinken said at the joint news conference with Al Thani.
“Now that we have the response from Hamas to the proposal that was put on the table a week or so ago, we’re going to be intensely focused on that,” Blinken said.
“That offers the prospect of extended calm, hostages out, more assistance in, that would clearly be beneficial to everyone,” continued the American envoy, on the third stop of his fifth trip to the region since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks that killed 1,200 Israelis. “And I think that offers the best path forward. But there’s a lot of work to be done to achieve that.”
“We’ve received the response to the proposal,” Blinken said. “We are studying it intensively. It’s been shared with the Israelis. I’ll pick up that conversation tomorrow in Israel when I’m there, and we will be working as hard as we possibly can to try to get an agreement so that we can move forward with...an expanded agreement on hostages and all the benefits that that would bring with it.”
The Qatari prime minister said they had just received the Hamas response a few hours ago and sent it to the Israeli side. “There will be further negotiations and discussions of the details, and we hope that we will reach an agreement as soon as possible in coordination and cooperation with our partners in the United States and Egypt.”
Blinken: Saudi Crown Prince reiterated conditions for normalization with Israel: end to Gaza war, credible path to Palestinian state
Blinken, asked about his latest conversations including with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh on Monday on prospective Saudi Israel normalization, said there was a powerful path forward, but it’s going to require tough decisions, including from Israel. And Blinken said the Saudi Crown Prince reiterated that he would be willing to undertake Saudi Israel normalization deal under two conditions: an end to Israel’s war in Gaza, and a “clear, credible, time bound path to the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
“There is an incredibly powerful path that lies before us,” Blinken said. “But it’s going to require everyone involved to make hard decisions. None of this comes easy.”
“With regards specifically to normalization, the Crown Prince reiterated Saudi Arabia’s strong interest in pursuing that, but he also made clear what he had said to me before, which is that in order to do that, two things are required: an end to the conflict in Gaza, and a clear, credible, time-bound path to the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
“That’s something that Israelis will have to decide for themselves,” Blinken said. “If we’re able to move down that pathway, it also does something else. It isolates those who reject it, starting with Iran . …But again, these are decisions that will have to be made.”
**