Thomas Pickering, a former US ambassador to the United Nations, says it remains anyone’s guess whether the upcoming vote on a UN Security Council resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza will pass.
He says the Biden administration believed Middle East mediators could sway Hamas into accepting the truce proposal announced last week by the US president, who said it came from Israel.
“I think there was some hope that Egypt could play a more forceful role in bringing Hamas along with Qatar. Secretary Blinken has made it clear he hasn’t reached success,” Pickering told newsmen.
“Hamas has a problem. It wants a permanent ceasefire now. The proposal proposes in stage two something that moves very close to that direction. But it counts on an accurate completion in six weeks of stage one before you get there.
“So resolving those differences has not been possible in the negotiating framework. Whether they’ll be resolved before 4pm [19:00 GMT] this afternoon is uncertain.”
,,Aljazeera>>
