10 minutes agoBiden talks on the phone with Netanyah about the Gaza truce
Periskopi(2 years ago)
(2 years ago)President Joe Biden held a telephone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyah on Wednesday over efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement in Gaza and release the hostages, the White House announced. Phone conversations follow the visit to the Middle East of American diplomacy chief Antony Blinken, who ended on Tuesday without a [...]
President Joe Biden held a telephone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyah on Wednesday over efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement in Gaza and release the hostages, the White House announced.
The phone conversation comes after US diplomacy chief Antony Blinken's visit to the Middle East, which ended on Tuesday without a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas militants.
Secretary Blinken and middleman from Egypt and Qatar have been relying their hopes on an American proposal aimed at narrowing the gaps between the two sides in the 10-month war in Gaza.
“President Biden spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyah to discuss the ceasefire and agreement to release hostages, as well as diplomatic efforts to reduce regional tensions”It says in a statement from the White House.
Vice President Kamala Harris also attended the call with the Israeli leader, who will officially accept the Democratic Assembly Thursday's nomination as a candidate for president of the United States in the November 5th elections. So far there are no other details about the call.
According to comments by an American official before the call was held, President Biden was expected to pressure Prime Minister Netanyahu to ease a new Israeli requirement for holding troops along a land corridor between Egypt and Gaza. President Biden is in California on a family vacation on a farm of about 3,500 acres [3,500 ha].
Reaching a ceasefire agreement in Gaza has top priorities for President Beden. A senior American official said Friday that the talks are close to reaching an agreement, something that has been extremely impossible.
Hamas requires Israel's complete withdrawal from Gaza, including from the Filadelf Corridor, a 145km-long strip of land between Egypt and Gaza.
Israel aims to maintain control of the corridor, which it occupied at the end of May, after destroying dozens of tunnels below it, which it says had served to supply militant groups in Gaza with weapons. / VOA
