After vetoing multiple demands for a ceasefire at the UN Security Council, and then abstaining from others, Washington saw on Monday the adoption of its call for a three-phase deal to end hostilities between Israel and Hamas and see an exchange of captives.
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, was back in the region this week to try to push Hamas and Israel to accept the deal. Washington’s top diplomat pointed to the former as the intransigent party, even though Benjamin Netanyahu still insists on seeing through the war until “the elimination of Hamas.”
Hamas, by contrast, welcomed the proposal laid out by US President Joe Biden in a 31 May speech in which he warned Israel against an “indefinite war in pursuit of an unidentified notion of total victory.” …..more
