The American website Axios said today, Friday, that the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), William Burns, will meet next Sunday in Rome with the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Qatar, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, the Director of the Israeli Mossad, David Barnea, and the Head of the Egyptian Intelligence Service, Abbas Kamel, to discuss the ceasefire agreement in Gaza and the exchange of prisoners and detainees.

According to what the website quoted from an informed source, the meeting is not expected to include detailed negotiations on the remaining gaps regarding the ceasefire agreement in Gaza and the prisoner exchange, but will focus mainly on developing a strategy for moving forward in the negotiations. During his meeting with the Prime Minister of the occupation, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Thursday, the US President stressed the need to close the remaining gaps in order to reach a ceasefire in Gaza, complete the agreement as soon as possible, return the detainees and reach a sustainable end to the war.

While Netanyahu stressed his position on the agreement and added new demands, an Israeli official said, according to Axios, that Netanyahu discussed his new demands with Biden during their meeting at the White House, and pledged to send an updated proposal within two days to the United States and Qatari and Egyptian mediators to deliver it to Hamas.

The American website confirmed, quoting a source familiar with the meeting, that Biden and his advisers are not sure whether Netanyahu really wants to reach an agreement or is stalling to prevent his government from collapsing, while an Israeli official said that Netanyahu wants a deal that is impossible to obtain, which means that the ceasefire negotiations are heading towards a crisis rather than reaching a deal. Israel had postponed the visit of the Israeli negotiating delegation that was scheduled to Doha on Thursday, to await the results of the Biden-Netanyahu meeting.

Demands complicate Gaza ceasefire agreement

Earlier today, Reuters quoted a Western official, a Palestinian source and two Egyptian sources as saying that the Israeli occupation is trying to introduce changes to a plan to reach a ceasefire agreement in Gaza and a prisoner exchange. According to the Reuters sources, Israel wants to conduct security checks on displaced Palestinians upon their return to the north of the Strip when the ceasefire begins, thus backing away from an agreement that would allow civilians who were displaced to the south to return to their homes freely.

The Palestinian source and the two Egyptian sources also said that Hamas rejected the new Israeli demand. The two Egyptian sources indicated that there is another point of contention related to Israel’s demand to maintain control over Gaza’s border with Egypt, which Cairo rejects as going beyond any framework for a final agreement that would be acceptable to the parties.

Source: Al-Araby Al-Jadeed