Gaza War: In Exchange With Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden Stresses “Immediate Need for a Ceasefire in Gaza”

Les deux chefs d’État se sont entretenus au téléphone ce dimanche 12 janvier. MAXPPP – SAMUEL CORUM/POOL

Ce dimanche 12 janvier, le président américain s’est entretenu avec Benjamin Netanyahu par téléphone. Un accord entre les deux partis sur une trêve serait très proche.

US President Joe Biden spoke by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, the White House said, as his administration works to secure a deal to free Hamas hostages and a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip before Donald Trump takes office on January 20.

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The two leaders discussed ongoing efforts to try to reach a halt to hostilities in the devastated Palestinian enclave and free the 100 or so Israeli hostages, alive and dead, still held by the Palestinian group, the White House said.

“Immediate need for ceasefire in Gaza”

Joe Biden, she added,“stressed the immediate need for a ceasefire in Gaza and the return of hostages, with increased humanitarian aid that would be possible with a halt to the fighting.” Benjamin Netanyahu briefed the US president on progress in indirect negotiations with Hamas and the mandate he gave to an Israeli delegation that arrived Sunday in Qatar, one of the mediating countries in the talks, along with Egypt and the United States, the Israeli Prime Minister's Office said.

The two men also discussed the profound changes in the Middle East brought about by “the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon, the fall of the Assad regime in Syria and the weakening of Iranian power,” the White House added.

“Very close” to a truce agreement

Asked on CNN, Joe Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, judged that the parties were “very close” to an agreement on a truce in Gaza and that there was still a chance of reaching one before the Democrat leaves the White House, while also judging it possible that “Hamas, in particular, remains intransigent”. On Fox News, Donald Trump's future vice president, J.D. Vance, said he expected an agreement to be announced in the final days of Joe Biden's presidency.