CIA Director William Burns will be on another diplomatic trip to Cairo this Saturday. This trip will aim at the revitalization of the talks around the release of the hostages of Hamas being detained in Gaza. Although Ramzan was the beginning of the Holy month, everything unsuccessful made Burns a vital actor in current talks.
According to the sources, American officials think that a cease-fire must be the talks’ priority. Also, the exchange of hostages on both sides is equally necessary for the negotiations and the flow of humanitarian aid.
Sharing aboard the plane on this important trip is, undoubtedly, Israel’s Mossad chief, David Barnea, to mention a few, together with the Egyptian and the Qatari negotiators. The U.S. faces difficulties in communicating with Hamas, a group that doesn’t like to have direct contact with American or Israeli officials. Therefore, the proposals are relayed by Egyptians and Qatary intermediaries.
Additionally, progress was hampered in the last couple of weeks, with the issue of re-letting the Palestinians back into the north of Gaza seems to be the issue that is emerging as a problematic spot. These revelations from inside sources make it evident that Palestinian demand (a complete Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and a redrawing of the 1949 Armistice line) is rejected by Israel, hence preventing agreement.
Burns, who exhibited his proficiency from his previous position as a highly-skilled diplomat and in the past as a negotiator, offered alternative proposals that could potentially help to move the agenda along and steer all parties towards working towards the same specific goals, which could later be put forward for the consideration of Hamas, has also put forth a number of alternatives proposals. However, the query of whether Burns will throw in a brand new proposal or not will be still unsettled by the next session.
One of the difficulties of the negotiations that are undergoing at this stage is that the process of conveying proposals to an inaccessible Hamas leader in Gaza, Yehia Sinwar, who has been seemingly responsible for the October 7 rocket attack from Gaza towards Israel, is time-consuming partly due to the complicated nature of this process of contacting the leader. It is believed that Sinwar, who is in hiding, being protected by a group of hostages, is hidden in the tunnels under the territory of the Gaza Strip and (bearing human shields) from Israeli raids being held at bay.
