According to the news of the US-based Axios website, a critical meeting will take place in Rome, Italy, on July 28th regarding the long-standing prisoner swap and ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas.
According to American and Israeli officials, the meeting in Rome will bring together the Director of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) William Burns, Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Egyptian Intelligence Director Abbas Kamil and Mossad Director David Barnea.
According to some sources, while the negotiations are not expected to be discussed in detail, it is stated that forward-looking strategies will mainly be discussed.
Despite that Prime Minister Netanyahu has been delaying and dragging out the deal, Israeli officials say they are optimistic that the deal will be signed soon after the meeting with President Joe Biden during his visit to the United States.
Netanyahu reportedly promised to send Biden an updated proposal for engagement with Hamas, but some sources say there is uncertainty over whether Netanyahu truly wants a deal and whether he is buying time to prevent the collapse of his government.
Israeli negotiators are not expecting any progress at the Rome meeting and are uncertain whether Netanyahu can be persuaded to soften his tough demands, raising concerns that the talks are heading towards a crisis.
While it was reported that the CIA did not comment on the meeting, the visit of the Israeli negotiating team, which was expected to go to Qatar yesterday for prisoner exchange and ceasefire negotiations in the Gaza Strip, was postponed.
While the Israeli “Walla” news site claims that the negotiation team has postponed its visit to Qatar until next week, it is stated that the delegation is still expected to go to Doha.
