Parties involved in peace talks between Israel and Hamas are increasingly hopeful that the current round of negotiations may finally bring hostilities in the region to an end.
It is the last chance for President Joe Biden and his administration to get the deal across the finish line with help from international partners hoping to secure the release of Israeli hostages and an end to bombing in Gaza.
Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said Tuesday that relevant parties are “at the closest point ever to having a deal.”
An official statement from Hamas also acknowledged that negotiations are in the “final stage.”
Mediation between Israel and the terrorist group is being handled by officials from the United States, Qatar, and Egypt.
There is keen interest on all sides in making the deal before Biden leaves the White House.
President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office Monday and has promised that if the Israeli hostages are not released by his inauguration, those responsible will be “hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied history of the United States of America.”
The Trump administration has taken a proactive role in the process.
Steve Witkoff, the president-elect’s incoming special envoy to the Middle East, is participating in the mediation talks.
Witkoff is meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pressure the Israeli government to accept the proposed three-phase plan.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has praised the incoming special envoy for his help in the negotiations and for ensuring that the Trump administration will honor any agreement.
“I think Steve Witkoff has been a terrific partner in this, and also President-elect Trump in making clear that he wants to see this deal go forward, and go forward before Jan. 20,” Blinken told MSNBC.
“Everyone wants to know, and it’s very useful as well to have Steve a part of this, they want to make sure that the deal that the president’s put on the table and that we’ve negotiated, the Trump administration will continue to back,” Blinken continued. “So creating that confidence by having Steve Witkoff’s participation, I think, has been critical.”
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The peace deal is still far from a sure thing.
Years of negotiations have regularly ended in failure, driving the Qatari contingent to withdraw temporarily from mediation in November 2024 and accuse Israel and Hamas of not taking the process seriously.
