Blinken Says Gaza Cease-Fire Deal Is ‘Inside the 10-Yard Line’

[Pelican Press 0]

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Blinken Says Gaza Cease-***** Deal Is ‘Inside the 10-Yard Line’

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on Friday that an agreement to free hostages held in Gaza and establish a cease-***** was close, as administration officials prepared for what they expected to be a tense visit to Washington next week by *******’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Mr. Blinken, speaking at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, said that the talks were “inside the 10-yard line.” Hours later at the same conference, Mr. Sullivan said there was no expectation that an agreement would be reached before Mr. Netanyahu addressed a ****** session of Congress on Wednesday, a speech some ********* officials ***** could throw up new obstacles to an agreement with ******.

Mr. Sullivan said President Biden would “focus his energy” in his meetings with Mr. Netanyahu “to get this deal done in the coming weeks.”

“We are mindful that there remain obstacles in the way,” Mr. Sullivan said, “and let’s use next week to try to clear through those obstacles.”

The two officials, among Mr. Biden’s closest advisers, said nothing about how Mr. Biden would juggle the crisis engulfing his re-election bid with managing the tense relationship with Mr. Netanyahu.

Instead, they focused heavily on the halting, often frustrating process of getting ******* and ****** to agree to the details of a cease-***** deal resembling the terms that Mr. Biden proposed in May. They are seeking to put pressure on ****** to agree to a negotiated halt in the ********* and to release the Israelis and other prisoners who were taken in the ********** ******* on Oct. 7.

Mr. Blinken struck a note of hope, saying that ****** had agreed to the framework proposed by Mr. Biden. But he acknowledged that working out the details, including providing security inside Gaza and developing a postwar plan to govern the territory and allow in more relief supplies, had taken far longer than expected.

“When I say we are inside the 10-yard line, we are,” Mr. Blinken said. “Now, we also know that with anything, the last 10 yards are often the hardest.”

He said that ****** could not return to power in Gaza but that the ******** occupation of Gaza could not continue.

“What we can’t have is an agreement that’s followed by some kind of void that will either be filled by ****** coming back, which is unacceptable, by ******* prolonging its occupation of Gaza, which they say they don’t want to do and is unacceptable,” Mr. Blinken said. “Or just having a vacuum that’s filled by lawlessness, that’s filled by chaos, which we see in so many parts of Gaza right now.”

****** officials have said they have agreed to cede civil and police control to an independent authority. ********* officials want security control to be given to a force of Palestinians who support the West Bank-based ************ Authority. ****** has insisted it will not give up control of its security forces.

Before the Oct. 7 attacks, Mr. Blinken and Mr. Sullivan were working on negotiating a deal between ******* and Saudi Arabia that would have resulted in Saudi recognition of the ******** state — a huge breakthrough, and an extension of the Trump-era Abraham Accords.

That deal also would have ***** the foundation for improving conditions for the Palestinians but not explicitly called for the creation of a ************ state, which Mr. Netanyahu has long opposed. Since the Oct. 7 attacks, U.S. officials have argued a real pathway to a ************ state is needed to help keep the peace after a cease-*****.

But restoring that negotiation has been impossible without a cease-*****. Asked if the hopes of creating a ************ state were still alive, Mr. Blinken jokingly quoted Senator John McCain of Arizona, saying, “It’s always darkest before it goes completely ******.”

He quickly added that hopes for an independent ************ state “can’t be” *****.

But Mr. Sullivan said he did not think this speech would be like Mr. Netanyahu’s 2015 address before Congress, which helped ******** public support for the Iran nuclear deal.

Mr. Sullivan said that he did not expect to see a copy of the speech but that he believed Mr. Netanyahu would discuss his remarks with Mr. Biden. Mr. Sullivan said that Ron Dermer, a senior ******** government official, and other ******** officials were in Washington this week for meetings and gave a broad preview of the speech.

“They said he’s intending to reinforce a set of themes and arguments that are not at odds or in contradiction to our policy, ********* policy,” Mr. Sullivan said. “But they’re going to keep working that speech till the very last minute, just like we do on our side.”

Mr. Blinken and Mr. Sullivan both spoke about sustaining commitments to Ukraine, though they talked around the biggest threat to that financing: The possibility that Donald J. Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, would be elected in November and halt the ********* aid. Instead, they pointed to a growing number of bilateral agreements between ********* and ****** allies of the ******* States to supply Ukraine for the next decade.

They also turned to China’s growing role in supplying Russia with electronics and other high-tech products for the rebuilding of its military. Before the NATO summit last week, an orchestrated ********* campaign to provide Europe with intelligence about the ******** effort resulted in a strong and rare ********* statement demanding that Beijing stop.

“Writ large, the picture is not pretty,” Mr. Sullivan said. “China continues to be a major supplier of dual-use items to Russia’s war machine.”

U.S. officials also said this week that Russia, in response to ********* support to Ukraine, was contemplating sending arms, including ship-******** missiles, to the Houthis in Yemen, according to a Wall Street Journal report. When asked about the report, Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the chairman of the ****** Chiefs of Staff, said at the conference that he did not want to confirm reporting about intelligence.

“We would prefer them not to do that,” General Brown said. “The key point is we do not want them to broaden the conflict. And them supporting the Houthis, if that is what they are doing, helps to broaden the conflict and just makes it more complicated in the Middle East.”

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