Background Press Call on Ceasefire Negotiations and Joint Statement from the Leaders of the United States, Egypt, and Qatar.
MODERATOR: Hey, good afternoon, everyone. Thanks so much for joining today’s call, and apology for our delay in getting started here.
Just a little housekeeping before we get started. As a reminder, this call is on background, attributable to a senior administration official, and the contents of the call are embargoed until its conclusion.
For your awareness, not for your reporting, on the call today we have [senior administration official]. I’ll turn it over to [senior administration official] for a few words at the top, and then we’ll take over your questions.
[Senior administration official], we’ll turn it over to you.SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Thanks, Eduardo. And thanks, everybody, for joining. I’m calling here from Doha after a very constructive two days — over two days here in Doha, which I’ll talk about.
But we just finished two calls with the President and President Al-Sisi of Egypt and Sheikh Amir Tamim of Qatar. I think there was a consensus between all three leaders that this process, which obviously has been ongoing for months, is now in the end game. The leaders talked about a final bridging proposal that the United States put on the table today, late in the day here in Qatar, with the full support of Egypt and Qatar as mediators. And we will be reconvening in Cairo, at this level, before the end of next week, with an aim to close out this process once and for all. And a readout for those calls should be coming around fairly soon.
The leaders also, obviously, talked about the broader regional situation and everything we are doing to ensure that any new attacks or escalations are not only deterred, but also to make very clear that, you know, should an attack occur, the consequences of it would be — could be quite serious for the region and also, in particular, for Iran.
So that is an ongoing backdrop to those calls. But the calls, I thought, were building on the constructive atmosphere over the last two days and, I think, set a very positive agenda over the coming week.
Let me talk briefly about Doha. There’s a lot of prep work that led up to these two days. I thought the two days here in Doha probably were the most constructive 48 hours that we’ve had in this process in many months. The Israeli team that was here was empowered — clearly empowered. We made a lot of progress on a number of issues that we’ve been working on. Hamas officials, of course, are here in Doha, and senior officials from Qatar and Egypt were able to engage with them throughout the two days.
Towards the end of today, we put down a final bridging proposal, which you have seen in the joint statement from the United States, Egypt, and Qatar — which the three of us, collectively, believe basically bridge nearly all of the remaining gaps that have been under discussion for really the last six weeks.
And just to put some color on that: As you know, Israel put down a proposal on May 27th, that was the basis of the President’s speech on May 31st, that basically was a culmination of months of effort and that basically encapsulated the main elements of the deal that we think is a very good deal, which is why the President laid out its terms on May 31st. The President also made clear in that speech that there was still more work to do, particularly in the implementation arrangements of the deal.
On July 3rd, Hamas came back with a response to that, with a number of changes, many of which were not acceptable but many of which were a basis for further discussion. And Israel, on July 27th, issued some clarifications to the text. And basically, what we’ve done is taken the gaps that remain and have bridged those in a way that we think basically is a deal that is now ready to close and implement and move forward.
There is still more work to do. And over the course of this week, there are working group engagements to talk about everything from the list of hostages and the sequence by which hostages would be released; the list of Palestinian prisoners, because, ultimately, this is an exchange similar to what you saw in the November ceasefire deal. And this is extremely complicated. And a large basis of the talks over the course of the last two days were about that issue, that exchange issue, which, in the nomenclature, is known as the keys. And there were some gaps there and some trade space between the parties, which I think we’ve now gone a long way to bridge.
And again, our focus is getting the hostages out of Gaza and getting them out a lot, particularly in this first phase. I think you’re all well familiar with the phasing of the deal; we talked about it so much.
Also, over the course of this week, there will be further meetings here in Doha and also in Cairo to talk about some of these issues. And we will be beginning the process to stand up an implementation cell for the deal, particularly — which was in the readout, or, sorry, in the joint statement we issued together with Qatar and Egypt earlier today — on the extensive humanitarian provisions and making sure that those would all be implemented rapidly once the deal is concluded.
And I think — I want to be sure, given all the focus on some elements of the deal, that not lost in that is the significant humanitarian provisions in the deal, and not only the amount of aid, but also clearing rubble, rehabilitation of medical services, electricity, everything else. Again, this is all laid out in the deal. I think we’ve laid that out going all the way back to the President’s speech.
So we will be working through, starting earlier this week in Cairo, on the implementation arrangements in a cell to basically oversee the many areas of implementing this deal, not only the humanitarian provisions I mentioned, but also the actual exchange of detainees and hostages and how that will go, as well as other elements of the deal that require some monitoring to make sure that there’s compliance, as you do in any deal like this.
So, that will be ongoing through the week. And then, again, in Cairo, before the end of next week, we will gather again at this level with an aim to conclude this. That is the goal. That is something that President Al-Sisi and President — Amir Tamim just confirmed with the President. And that is something we’ll be driving towards.
Obviously, Secretary Blinken will be traveling to the region, I think starting on Sunday, starting with meetings in Israel. And we will be engaged with this throughout the week.
But the bottom line here, after two days in Doha and going back to the joint leaders’ statement that came out last week between the leaders that, again, just spoke today — the President and President Sisi and Sheikh Tamim — we wanted to really drive this process to get it back on track. I think we very much have done that. And I think there was consensus of all the participants here over the last 48 hours that there’s really a new spirit here to drive this to a conclusion.
I want to be very clear: This is a very difficult, complex deal. It is wrenching because this is about getting hostages out of Gaza. There are elements of the deal that are uncomfortable, just like any deal like this. It is far from perfect, but we think what we have down here now very much reflects the principles that the President laid out, that the U.N. Security Council fully endorsed.
And now, with the additional clarifications and some gaps that have been closed, we think the package is basically there. And so, we’ll be working on it throughout the week. I’m sure we’ll be talking to you guys probably later in the week as we gear up for Cairo next weekend.
And with that, I will take some questions.
MODERATOR: Thanks. Our first question will go to the line of Aamer. You should be able to unmute yourself.
Q Hey. Thank you both. Where does Israel stand on the Philadelphi and Netzarim Corridors after this ceasefire is established?
And, I guess, is it fair to say that Israel is more or less somewhere near that May 31st itineration of this?
And then, secondly, what’s the level of confidence that Iran will hold off on any action on Israel or allies until at least these Cairo talks play out? Thank you.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Let me just take your first question — or, I guess, sorry, your second question first.
And I think Secretary Austin made very clear in his readout earlier this morning, after his call with Minister Gallant of Israel, that we, the United States of America, have moved a significant amount of military resources in a very coordinated fashion with partners and allies, including the French and the Brits and others, to ensure that we have everything in place for every possible contingency. And we are going to do everything that is needed to defend Israel against any attack from Iran.
The President had one word for the possibility of an attack. He said, “Don’t” and “We mean it.” And we’ve demonstrated that with what we have deployed to the region.
We have also been engaged in extensive diplomacy in the region, obviously, but to make clear the consequences should such an attack occur, and also, I think the driving goal to ultimately de-escalate tensions in the region. And Iran claims to those that they are speaking with, including many of my colleagues here from Qatar who are in touch with senior Iranian officials over the last two days as we are here, that they want to see a ceasefire in Gaza, that that is their goal; they want to see a de-escalation of tensions. And of course, that very much remains to be seen.
But now is an opportunity to put their money where their mouth is and to basically work towards the conclusion of this over the coming week.
But these two processes are separate. The ceasefire deal is something that we’ve been working on for many months. We see an opportunity here to try to bring it to resolution. We’re going to do that. We’re also in parallel doing everything we possibly can to ensure we have everything in place for every possible contingency.
And it’s just ironic — it was Hamas, a proxy of Iran, who started this war on October 7th, and it would be ironic if Iran were to do something to basically derail what we think is the best opportunity for a comprehensive ceasefire and hostage release deal that we have had in many months. So, we’re prepared in that regard for all possible contingencies.
On your first question, I’m not going to discuss the details of the negotiation for reasons I think you can understand.
You asked two questions about the deal, so obviously you’re very knowledgeable of it. One of them has to do with the fact that age through the deal at certain phasing. As hostages are released, Israeli forces redeploy in some areas and the population can return to their homes. It is stipulated in the deal that particularly people going from south to north, displaced persons, meaning civilians without arms — that is a core provision of the deal. And obviously, the Israelis want to make sure that that provision is followed through.
We believe, as do the other mediators, that that is a material principle of the deal, and that if anyone is carrying arms from south to north, that would be a violation of the deal. And that is something that was reaffirmed throughout the talks over the last two days.
On the Philadelphi Corridor, we’ve been working very closely with Egypt and others — and also, of course, Egypt through mediation with Hamas — about the arrangements in the Philadelphi Corridor. I think that issue is moving the right way and, I think, very consistent with the May 27th text.
