MOSCOW (Sputnik) – A spokesperson for Palestinian movement Hamas in Lebanon, Ahmad Abdul Hadi, said on Sunday that the first stage of the hostage talks had not shown any progress.
On Thursday and Friday, talks on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip were held in Doha with the participation of Qatar, Egypt, the United States and Israel. The Hamas leadership refused to participate in the talks due to the lack of specifics on the terms of the truce. The Axios news portal reported on Saturday, citing officials familiar with the matter, that US President Joe Biden was aiming to finalize a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal by the end of next week and to deter Iran and Lebanese movement Hezbollah from attacks on Israel that could hamper diplomatic efforts.
“The Biden administration is trying to show that the environment is positive. But the first round showed there are no improvements,” Abdul Hadi said in an interview with Sky News.
According to Abdul Hadi, Biden’s statements that he is optimistic about the prospects for the parties to reach an agreement and that there are a couple of issues that need to be agreed upon were made only to “keep everything sounding positive in the media” and to “keep the Axis of Resistance calm and to stop it responding to the assassination and not slip into a regional war.”
The spokesperson of the movement added that the mediators reported that the contentious issues during the talks had not been resolved, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had put forward more conditions and further complicated the situation.
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