The United States is exploring a “new framework” for a deal to secure the freedom of the remaining 101 hostages, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters on Wednesday before departing Israel for Saudi Arabia.
He hinted at the possibility that the release of the captives would be part of a regional deal.
“We talked about the plan that we’ve had on the table and the work that we’re doing on that plan, looking at new frameworks of foreign relations as a possibility,” Blinken said.
His vague statement appeared to refer to the former three-phase plan the US unveiled in May to free the hostages and end the Gaza war. Work on that deal — mediated by Hamas and Qatar — came to a halt when Hamas executed six of the hostages, including US-Israeli citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin at the end of August.
While in Israel, Blinken said, he talked about “the importance of determining whether Hamas is prepared to engage in moving forward, and the Egyptians, the Qataris are doing just that.”
Blinken trip had been prompted by the IDF killing last week of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. The US had viewed Sinwar as an obstacle to making a deal and had hoped that his death would open a new opportunity to make a deal.
Sinwar “was the primary obstacle for realizing the hostage agreement,” Blinken told reporters on Wednesday. Now, he said, there is “a real opportunity to bring them home and to accomplish the objective.”
Arab leaders to meet Blinken
Blinken is expected to meet with additional Arab leaders in London on Friday after his Middle East trip, the State Department said.
He also stressed the importance of ending the Gaza war, explaining that Israel “has achieved most of its strategic objectives when it comes to Gaza,” including ensuring that Hamas can not execute another October 7-style attack.Within the last year, Blinken said, Israel has “managed to dismantle Hamas’s military capacity. It’s destroyed much of its arsenal. It’s eliminated its senior leadership, including, most recently, Yahya Sinwar.
“This has come at the cost – the great cost – of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Now is the time to turn those successes into an enduring strategic success, and there are really two things left to do: get the hostages home and bring the war to an end with an understanding of what will follow,” he said,
“That’s what we’ve been working on this past day and will continue to work on throughout this trip.
Blinken said he also spoke with Israel and would speak with Arab leaders about what happens next in Gaza.
“We have to end the war in a way that keeps Hamas out, makes sure that Israel doesn’t stay” in Gaza, he said.
“We’re spending a lot of time focused on that question, talking not only to Israelis but also to many Arab parties.
We’ve had these conversations for some time. I’ll be pursuing them in the days ahead as we meet with our partners both here and in Europe.
“We’re working to get clear understandings for Gaza’s governance, for its security, for its reconstruction, and what the international community can do to help and help Palestinians rebuild their lives,” Blinken said.
He also planned to discuss a deal to normalize ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel, which the Biden administration had on the table prior to the October 7 attack.
The US “can see a partnership for peaceful coexistence on the other hand. Saudi Arabia would be right at the heart of that, and that includes, potentially, normalization of relations with Israel. That remains an issue that’s real, that’s possible, and that we’re going to be talking about, as we have over these many months,” he said.