Rhino: Agencies – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s whirlwind tour of the Middle East sought to lend a sense of urgency to efforts to broker a Gaza ceasefire, but he left the region on Tuesday with a deal between Israel and Hamas still elusive.
Blinken and mediators from Egypt and Qatar had pinned their hopes on a US proposal aimed at narrowing the gaps between the two sides in the 10-month war, after negotiations stalled last week without progress.
Blinken told reporters in Doha before leaving for Washington that the deal ‘has to be done, it has to be done in the coming days, and we will do everything we can to get it done.’
A senior Biden administration official travelling with Blinken said the US expects ceasefire talks to continue this week.
Blinken travelled to Egypt for talks on Tuesday with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and then to Qatar.