The American newspaper, Financial Times, said that the US military is preparing for the possibility of a collapse of the ceasefire talks between Israel and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), amid fears that the collapse could lead to an escalation of the war to a wider regional level.
Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General CQ Brown expressed concern about the impact of the halt in talks on regional tensions.
Brown, who was en route to a meeting of the Ukraine Contact Group in Germany, said he was studying how regional actors might respond if the talks failed, warning that it could lead to increased military activity and a wider war. He said his focus was on avoiding a wider conflict and protecting U.S. forces.
The administration of US President Joe Biden sees ceasefire talks as the key to reducing tensions in the region and avoiding a full-scale regional war.
Talks falter
Despite the US attempt to maintain optimism about the talks, the negotiations remain stuck, with positions differing between Israel and Hamas on details related to the release of prisoners from both sides, as well as on Israel’s demand to keep its forces along the Philadelphi Corridor on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
In a statement on Thursday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken indicated that the United States would share “in the coming days” with the parties concerned ideas on how to resolve the remaining issues.
“The final decision will be the responsibility of the parties involved,” he added. Despite the optimism that the United States has tried to maintain, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tried to publicly downplay the progress in the negotiations, telling the American network “Fox News” that the deal is “not close.”
In contrast, senior American officials told the newspaper that the talks were 90 percent complete, but they acknowledged that difficult points remained unresolved, and rejected criticism that they were overly optimistic about the process.
Biden administration frustration
In turn, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby expressed frustration yesterday, Thursday, over the failure to reach a deal so far, noting that the US administration has faced several setbacks.
Earlier this week, Biden expressed frustration with Netanyahu’s role in the negotiations, saying he believed the Israeli prime minister was not doing enough to advance the deal. However, in recent days, Washington has blamed Hamas for the stalled talks.
A senior US official explained that the deaths of six Israeli prisoners last week had “added a sense of urgency to the process,” but also “raised questions about Hamas’s willingness to make any kind of deal.”