 "White House working to finalise Israel-Hamas hostage deal before Trump's inauguration: CIA")
Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns on Saturday said that the White House is working at ways to reach a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas before US President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20.
The development comes as Trump warned in December that there will be “hell to pay” if all the hostages are not returned before his inauguration day scheduled to be held in over a week.
“Negotiations going on right now are quite serious and do offer the possibility, at least, of getting this done in the next couple of weeks,” Burns said in an interview with National Public Radio.
He added, “This administration worked very hard at that right up until 20 January. I think the coordination with the new administration on this issue has been good. President-elect Trump has made clear his interest in trying to get a deal, you know, before his inauguration.”
Qatar briefs Trump admin
Meanwhile, Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff was briefed about the progress made in the Israel-Hamas mediation talks by Qatar which has been brokering the deal alongside Egypt and the United States.
The Qatari foreign ministry said that during his meeting with Witkoff, Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani discussed “the latest developments in the region, especially the efforts aimed at reaching a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.”
‘Some progress made’
Earlier this week, US and Arab mediators made some progress in their efforts to reach a ceasefire accord between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, but not enough to seal a deal.
“We’re making some real progress,” US President Joe Biden told reporters at the White House. “I’m still hopeful that we’ll be able to have a prisoner exchange,” he said, adding Hamas was getting in the way of that. The president said he met with negotiators on Thursday.
Hamas announced on Monday that it had submitted to mediators a list of 34 Israeli captives taken during its attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked the ongoing war. These individuals could be released as part of the “initial phase of a prisoner exchange agreement.”
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