US President Joe Biden has suggested that Iran will back off from a retaliatory strike on Israel if a truce is reached in Gaza, while the White House has called on Hamas and Israel to participate in Gaza ceasefire talks this week.
Asked by reporters after arriving in New Orleans on Tuesday whether Tehran would abandon targeting Israel in retaliation for the assassination of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran if a deal could be reached, Biden said, “That's what I expect.”
Biden's comments came after Reuters reported, citing three senior Iranian officials, that the only way Iran could delay a direct response to Israel is to reach a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip in the hoped-for talks this week.
In contrast, the Wall Street Journal quoted US officials as saying that President Joe Biden's administration may call for a postponement of negotiations if an Iranian attack occurs.
In this context, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in a meeting of the UN Security Council that ending the war on Gaza begins with concluding an immediate ceasefire agreement and releasing detainees in Gaza.
Call for Participation
Meanwhile, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said Hamas and Israel must participate in ceasefire talks in Gaza this week.
“We believe that the negotiators should come to the negotiating table, and we believe that reaching a ceasefire agreement is the best way to de-escalate the tensions that we are seeing,” Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One as the president traveled to New Orleans.
Last week, the United States, Egypt and Qatar issued an unusual joint public invitation to Israel and Hamas to hold negotiations starting Thursday.
US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed Israel's participation, while “our Qatari partners have assured us that they are working to ensure that Hamas is represented as well.”
Patel pointed out that a ceasefire would allow the release of hostages and the delivery of humanitarian aid, “to pull the region out of the endless cycle of violence.”
Netanyahu is disrupting
The New York Times reported, citing Israeli documents, that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secretly added new conditions to Tel Aviv's demands in the ceasefire negotiations in Gaza and the prisoner exchange.
The American newspaper said that the Israeli documents show that the Netanyahu government's “maneuvers” indicate that an agreement may be out of reach in the round of negotiations scheduled to be held the day after tomorrow, Thursday.
The newspaper explained that one of the conditions proposed before the Rome meetings in late July stipulated that Israeli forces must maintain control over the southern borders of the Gaza Strip, in reference to the Philadelphi (Salah al-Din) axis.
Last Thursday, the leaders of Qatar, Egypt and the United States called on Hamas and Israel to resume ceasefire and prisoner exchange talks on August 15 in Doha or Cairo.