The sitting US Commander-in-Chief seems to sometimes just make stuff up on the fly, based on apparently no real information, but just because it sounds good in the moment. Here's what he said at the start of the week... Biden while in an ice cream shop Tuesday in New York with Seth Meyers was asked by a reporter when he thought a ceasefire could begin, to which he answered he hoped a truce would be implemented within days. "Well, I hope by the beginning of the weekend, by the end of the weekend," he said. And that's when offered Monday as the day the warring sides will reach a ceasefire. "My national security adviser tells me that we’re close. We’re close. We’re not done yet. My hope is, by next Monday, we’ll have a ceasefire."
As we reported earlier, Israeli officials and even Hamas seemed to have no idea what he was talking about. Both sides issued statements concerning the Qatar-mediated negotiations process saying they are a long way away from achieving any kind of truce. Biden's somewhat off the cuff remarks likely even raised eyebrows among his own officials, given the totality of reporting over the last several days has been negative on the prospect of an imminent peace deal and hostage/prisoner swap.
And now by week's end, on Thursday Biden issued the opposite assessment, and even pinpointed his own prior "Monday" remarks. Apparently some his own negotiators got back to him (including likely the CIA Director William Burns, who has been key in the talks) and told him they're not even close. After all, PM Netanyahu has been hammering the "delusional" Hamas demands, something he's just repeated again on Thursday. Biden now says: "I was on the telephone with the people in the region. Probably not by Monday."
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