Cairo News TV said that ceasefire negotiations in the Gaza Strip will resume in Doha on Wednesday and return to Cairo on Thursday after talks on Tuesday between Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and US Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns.
Egypt’s state-run channel quoted a senior source as saying that an Egyptian delegation will head to Doha on Wednesday “on a mission to bring the views of Hamas and Israel closer together to reach a truce agreement as soon as possible.”
“There is agreement on many points,” the source said, adding that negotiations will return to Cairo on Thursday.
Egypt and Qatar are leading mediation efforts in the nine-month-old war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, hoping to end the fighting and free Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
Senior US officials have visited the region to press for a ceasefire after Hamas made concessions last week, but Hamas said a new Israeli assault on Gaza on Monday threatened truce talks at a crucial moment and called on mediators to rein in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Egyptian presidency said in a statement after Sisi’s meeting with Burns, “The president stressed in this regard the Egyptian position rejecting the continuation of military operations in the Gaza Strip.”
The presidency added that Sisi also stressed the need to take “serious and effective steps” to prevent the Gaza conflict from spreading to the wider region.
Source: Reuters
