CIA Director to meet Israeli, Egyptian and Qatari officials to broker ‘ambitious deal’, Washington Post

CAIRO – 25 January 2024: CIA Director William J. Burns is preparing to meet with Israeli, Egyptian and Qatari officials to help reach an exchange deal regarding detainees, according to Washington Post Thursday.

The American newspaper quoted ‘officials familiar with the matter’ saying that President Biden is planning to dispatch the CIA Director in the coming days to help broker an ambitious deal between Hamas and Israel.

It was added that ‘Burns is expected to travel to Europe for the talks and meet with the Israeli and Egyptian intelligence chiefs, David Barnea and Abbas Kamel, and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani’.

Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has stated that Egypt is persistently working towards reaching a ceasefire in Gaza. However, the ministry has highlighted that Israel's imposition of "unreasonable conditions" has made it currently unattainable.

“There are prohibitive conditions for ceasing fire and a lack of political will from the Israeli government and decision-makers,” Ahmed Abu Zeid, the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, expressed in a telephone interview with Al-Arabiya on Wednesday.

Abu Zeid also noted that the ceasefire remains out of reach due to the UN Security Council's inability to explicitly call for a ceasefire and the absence of a clear and unified international stance.

“The positions of the United States and some European countries are still ambiguous regarding the ceasefire, and as long as such situation persists, we are still far from achieving this goal,” added Abu Zeid.

The spokesman affirmed that the Rafah border crossing remains open throughout the day and emphasized that any delays in humanitarian aid are the responsibility of the Israeli side. He strongly denied any attempts by Israel to accuse Egypt in this regard.

Abu Zeid described the Israeli accusations as “efforts to create confusion and distort the truth,” stressing that Egypt has no interest in obstructing the entry of aid.

“Obstructing aid would lead to further exacerbation of the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, something that Egypt absolutely does not want,” stated Abu Zeid.