CIA Director heads to Doha for urgent talks on exchange deal: Axios

CIA director Bill Burns is due to arrive in Doha for urgent discussions with Qatar’s prime minister regarding mediation efforts for an exchange deal between Hamas and “Israel”, AFP reports citing sources close to the matter.

The source who requested anonymity said that Burns was en route to the Qatari capital for discussions with Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani regarding the deal.

“CIA director Burns is on his way to Doha for an emergency meeting with Qatar’s prime minister to explore avenues to see if the talks can be brought back on track” after “no breakthrough” in Cairo, said the source.

Qatar, alongside the US and Egypt, has been engaged in months of negotiations aimed at achieving a halt to hostilities in Gaza.

The latest series of discussions between intermediaries and the resistance concluded in Cairo on Sunday.

Qatar, which has housed Hamas’s political leadership since 2012, with the approval of Washington, also hosts the largest US military base in the region.

During a video message broadcast, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that he is ‘ready’ to reach a ceasefire and to get the captives released through a deal with the Palestinian Resistance.

Netanyahu then went on to say that the Resistance made unacceptable demands such as putting an end to the war by asking for a permanent ceasefire.

Read more: Netanyahu calls Hamas permanent ceasefire demands ‘unacceptable’

Earlier today, the head of Hamas’ Political Bureau Ismail Haniyeh told reporters that an end to the Israeli aggression on the Palestinian people is an “essential and rational” prerequisite to a mediated deal between the Palestinian Resistance and the Israeli regime.

Haniyeh affirmed the Islamic Resistance movement’s positive approach to the current round of negotiations in Cairo. Hamas discussed the issue with Palestinian factions and mediators, holding “concentrated meetings” among its leaders in Gaza and elsewhere, before sending its negotiating delegation to Egypt, Haniyeh added.

The delegation was informed of the movement’s “positive and flexible” position on a deal, the top official explained.

However, negotiators were informed on the importance of prioritizing an end to the aggression on the Palestinian people; an “essential and rational” stance, Haniyeh added.

He said that an end to the Israeli war on Gaza would lay the groundwork for a more “stable future”.

Haniyeh questioned the viability of an agreement if a ceasefire is not its initial result.

“The world has become a hostage to an extremist government, plagued by a vast array of political problems and crimes committed in Gaza,” Haniyeh underlined.

Read more: War on Gaza at impasse, Israeli Security leadership says