Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is back in the Middle
East.
He urged leaders in the region to press Hamas to
accept a ceasefire deal before leaving Cairo today.
Now Blinken is on his way to Israel to discuss
the proposal before traveling to Jordan and Cuddard this week.
It's all part of the Biden administration's efforts to press
Hamas and Israel to reach an agreement.
Senior White House correspondent Selena Wang joins me for more
on this.
Selena Blinken already met with the Egyptian President and is
expected to meet with Israeli officials today.
But Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has still not endorsed Biden's
proposal.
So where do these ceasefire talks stand now?
Yeah, Diane. Well, I've actually been told that this trip
that Anthony Blinken is making to the region,
not to read into it as a sign that this
ceasefire deal,
that negotiations are moving any further ahead.
But of course, blinking in all of his meetings with
his counterparts,
he is putting the pressure on.
Just moments ago on the tarmac in Egypt,
Blinken said that the onus is on Hamas to accept
the deal that's on the table.
He said the best way to end the suffering of
the Palestinian people,
to bring all the hostages home,
including those Americans, is for Hamas to accept that deal.
Now, we still have not heard any formal response from
Hamas.
Blinken said he doesn't know when they might hear from
them,
but he did say that the Egyptian counterparts have been
in touch with Hamas as early as just a few
hours ago.
And as you mentioned earlier,
Diane, Netanyahu has also yet to publicly endorse President Biden's
ceasefire deal,
the one that the president has laid out.
The hope here is that if Hamas accepts the deal,
the Netanyahu will have no choice but to do so
as well.
Now, Selena is really war Cabinet member Benny Gantz has
announced he's resigning from Netanyahu's government because he says the
Prime Minister has mismanaged the war.
How are people reacting to that and what do you
think?
That and the recent Israeli hostage rescue mission,
what kind of an impact will that all have on
the war,
on these negotiations? Yeah, Diane.
Well, on Betty Gantz resigning,
the White House is not commenting on that.
No surprise there as they don't comment on domestic Israeli
politics.
But the big question here is.
Does this embolden the far right members of the Israeli
government because Benny Gantz,
he was seen as a centrist.
And now this means that Netanyahu is going to rely
more on the far right members of his party.
So it's unclear exactly how that's going to impact the
war.
But the US, they have been in talks with Benny
Gantz.
And Blinken said he is still going to meet with
Gantz in Israel even though he has resigned from the
war cabinet.
When it comes to that hostage release rescue mission.
Will U.S. officials I've been talking to say that really
could go either way in terms of impacting negotiations.
It could embolden both sides or it could put more
pressure on Hamas to accept the deal on the table.
Senior White House correspondent Lena Wang,
Thank you.