"No deal is imminent," a US official has said of Gaza talks in Doha and Cairo. "I’m not sure it ever gets done." A new Wall Street Journal report says the consensus among White House, State Dept, and Pentagon officials is that a deal is unlikely to happen.
These officials naturally laid sole blame on Hamas; however, Israeli opposition officials have charged that Prime Minister Netanyahu has sabotaged efforts at reaching ceasefire at every turn, in order to prioritize the ultimate drawn-out goal of eradicating Hamas, and assuring it can never return to power in the Gaza Strip again.
The same above-mentioned US official asserted that no deal will happen at least until after the US election: "Everyone is in a wait-and-see mode until after the election. The outcome will determine what can happen in the next administration," the person said.
In the White House briefing room this week there's been a stark narrative shift, given only a couple of months ago Secretary Blinken was still claiming the sides were at the 'goal line' and ever so close to achieving an agreement for the exchange of hostages.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, for example said Wednesday that a deal now looks "daunting" while describing that "we aren’t any closer to that now than we were even a week ago." He still claimed US officials are working hard on getting closer.
It's proving a huge embarrassment for the Biden administration, also as war is flaring up in Lebanon in tandem with Gaza. WSJ details:
National security adviser Jake Sullivan met Wednesday with the relatives of the remaining seven American hostages held in Gaza, telling them that securing their release was a top priority for the president. But a statement from the families said they "expressed frustration with the lack of tangible progress" to Sullivan, urging the administration to make a deal as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, from talk of "goal line" to "not giving up hope"...
KIRBY: NOBODY HAS GIVEN UP HOPE ON ISRAEL-HAMAS CEASE-FIRE
The US officials who spoke to the WSJ described that the Israeli operation in Lebanon which blew up thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies Tuesday and Wednesday has also served to make an Israel-Hamas deal much more elusive.
They further pointed out the other obvious - that a major regional war centered in southern Lebanon is much more likely at this point. As for the US election, it looks assure that either a future Trump administration or future Harris administration is about to inherit a huge mess in the Middle East.
But it must be remembered it is also in part a mess of Washington's own making, given the billions in US weaponry to Israel which has fueled the war, and lack of real US pressure on the sides to do another hostage exchange. So the US is not merely 'on the sidelines' in all of this.
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