President Biden and his counterparts in Egypt and Qatar on Thursday called on Israel and Hamas to meet next week and hammer out the “remaining gaps” in a framework agreement for a cease-fire – which would likely be derailed should Iran or its proxies launch an attack on the Jewish state.
“The three of us and our teams have worked tirelessly over many months to forge a framework agreement that is now on the table with only the details of implementation left to conclude,” Biden, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el Sisi and Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said in a joint statement.
“There is no further time to waste nor excuses from any party for further delay,” the world leaders added. “It is time to release the hostages, begin the cease-fire, and implement this agreement.”
The trio noted that they are “prepared to present a final bridging proposal that resolves the remaining implementation issues in a manner that meets the expectations of all parties.”
The situation, however, is tenuous.
“If they launch a major war in the Middle East with some massive attack on Israel, which they’re threatening in coordination with other groups, well, that’s obviously going to significantly jeopardize any hope of getting a cease-fire in Gaza,” a senior administration official who briefed reporters on the state of the cease-fire negotiations said Thursday.
Iran has threatened to attack Israel directly for the assassination of Hamas’ top leader in Tehran, Ismail Haniyeh.
Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah is also reportedly expected to hit Israel in the coming days independent of possible strike from Iran.
The Lebanon-based terrorist group is seeking to avenge the death of Hezbollah senior commander Fuad Shukr, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike last week, and the group is unlikely to wait for a response from its backers in Tehran, sources told CNN.
The joint letter made no mention of Iran’s looming threat.
The senior administration official said that a deal isn’t expected to be signed by next Thursday, noting that there is “still a significant amount of work to do.”
The official said that the Israelis appear to be “very receptive” to the framework deal and that Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations also believes a cease-fire deal is close to getting done.
The US “will be prepared for any contingency” should Iran launch an attack on Israel, the senior administration official asserted.
“We have moved an awful lot of military force into the region, including F-22s that arrived today,” the official said, highlighting the “significant and substantial military deployments” to the Middle East to counter Iranian threats.
