White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby on Hostage Negotiations and Gaza Ceasefire: Latest Updates

2024-02-23 03:15:00
White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby (AP)

The negotiations carried out by the emissary of the President of the United States Joe Biden for a new release of hostages and a cessation of hostilities in Gaza “are going well,” declared this Thursday John Kirby, one of the White House spokespersons.

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“The first impressions we received from Brett (McGurk) are that the negotiations are going well,” said Kirby, specifying that the emissary was in Cairo on Wednesday and is in Israel this Thursday to meet with the government and relatives of hostages. Americans

The talks are related to “a prolonged pause to release all the hostages” and with the aim of “bringing more humanitarian aid” to the Gaza Strip, Kirby noted.

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Faced with a number of civilian victims that continues to increase, new discussions have begun around a plan drawn up by Qatar, the United States and Egypt, the first phase of which provides for a six-week truce, associated with an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel and the entry into Gaza of a large amount of humanitarian aid.

According to Israel, 130 hostages are still being held in Gaza, 30 of whom are believed to have died, out of some 250 people kidnapped on October 7.

International discussions also seek long-term solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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At the meeting of G20 foreign ministers in Rio de Janeiro “there was virtual unanimity in support of the two-state solution as the only possible solution to the conflict between Israel and Palestine,” said Brazilian Mauro Vieira, whose country chairs that meeting this year. gold of advanced and emerging powers.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also spoke out in favor of a two-state solution. “We all want this conflict to end as quickly as possible, but we must ensure… that it does not leave conditions that will only repeat the cycle of violence,” he said.

“We are working here with many partners on a framework that can produce lasting peace and security (…). “That means that Israel is integrated into the region, with normal relations with key countries, with firm guarantees for its security, and a concrete path towards a Palestinian state,” Blinken added, according to the transcript of his closed-door speech on Wednesday.

These pronouncements in Brazil occur the day following the Israeli Parliament approved by a large majority a resolution once morest any “unilateral recognition of a Palestinian State”, which according to the text would be equivalent to rewarding “the unprecedented terrorism” of the Islamist movement Hamas.

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