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Blinken Warns Israel, Hamas of Closing Window for Gaza Ceasefire: ‘Maybe Last Opportunity to Get Hostages Home’
US Secretary of State Blinken meets with Israel’s President Isaac Herzog, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Aug. 19, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt/Pool
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned on Monday that the latest push for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal was probably the best and possibly last opportunity, urging Israel and Hamas towards an elusive agreement.
However, with Palestinian terrorist group Hamas announcing a resumption of suicide bombing inside Israel after many years, and with Israeli airstrikes still pounding Gaza, there was little sign of conciliation.
Hamas and another terrorist group, Islamic Jihad, said they were behind a blast near a synagogue in Tel Aviv on Sunday that killed the bomber and wounded one other person. Suicide bombings “will return to the forefront” while the Gaza war continues, Hamas said in a statement.
The talks in Qatar last week paused without a breakthrough, but the negotiations are to resume this week based on a US “bridging proposal.”
Blinken met Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday morning.
“This is a decisive moment, probably the best, maybe the last opportunity to get the hostages home, to get a ceasefire and to put everyone on a better path to enduring peace and security,” Blinken told reporters before meeting Herzog.
Months of on-off talks have circled the same issues, with Israel saying the war can only end with the destruction of Hamas as a military and political force and Hamas saying it will only accept a permanent, and not a temporary, ceasefire.
There are disagreements over Israel‘s continued military presence inside Gaza, particularly along the border with Egypt, over the free movement of Palestinians inside the territory, and over the identity and number of prisoners to be freed in a swap.
Despite US expressions of optimism, both Israel and Hamas have signaled that a deal will be difficult.
Hamas accused Netanyahu on Sunday of “thwarting the mediators efforts” and Turkey said Hamas envoys had told it that US officials were “painting an overly optimistic picture.”
Netanyahu told Israel‘s cabinet on Sunday that “we are conducting negotiations and not a scenario in which we just give and give,” his office said.
However, a US official, asked if Hamas’ comments amounted to a rejection of the deal, said Washington believed the bridging proposal it outlined last week addressed various concerns and would iron out difficult implementation aspects.
The current war in Gaza began on Oct. 7 last year when Hamas gunmen stormed across the border into Israeli communities, killing around 1,200 people and abducting about 250 hostages.
Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign in neighboring Hamas-ruled Gaza aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling the terrorist group’s military and governing capabilities. Hamas-controlled health authorities in Gaza say about 40,000 Palestinians have died during the offensive, although experts have cast doubt on the reliability of casualty figures coming out of the enclave, in part because they do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
ESCALATION RISK
Blinken’s visit comes as US President Joe Biden faces mounting pressure over his stance on the conflict, with his Democratic party holding its national convention on Monday amid worries about Muslim and Arab-American votes in swing states.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri was dismissive of the chances that Blinken would press Netanyahu to accept a deal. “Blinken acts as if he was a minister in Netanyahu’s government,” Zuhri told Reuters.
Families of Israeli hostages, who have staged protests urging a deal, spoke out again on Monday. “Don’t sacrifice my daughter and the dozens of helpless hostages,” said Ayelet Levy-Shachar on Kan Radio. Her daughter Naama, 20, was captured at an army base.
Inside Gaza, Palestinians said they had little optimism that Blinken’s visit would bring a ceasefire.
“They are lying just to destroy us more and more. Kill us and kill our children, starve us and make us homeless. Blinken is useless, his visit will harm the Palestinian people,” said Hanan Abu Hamid, who was displaced from her home in Rafah.
The conflict has put the entire Middle East region on edge, triggering months of border clashes between Israel and Lebanon’s Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, and threatening a wider escalation drawing in major powers.
Blinken warned against any provocations. “It’s also time to make sure that no one takes any steps that could derail this process, and so we’re working to make sure that there is no escalation, that there are no provocations.”
Israel‘s military said there had been more Hezbollah drone strikes on the country’s north near the frontier with Lebanon on Monday. Blinken is to meet Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant after meeting Netanyahu.
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Trump Open to Meeting Iran’s Leaders, Sees Chance of Nuclear Deal
US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters at the White House in Washington, DC, US, April 23, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
US President Donald Trump this week said he is open to meeting Iran’s supreme leader or president and that he thinks the two countries will strike a new deal on Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.
However, Trump, who in 2018 pulled the US out of a now moribund nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, repeated a threat of military action against Iran unless a new pact is swiftly reached to prevent it developing nuclear weapons.
Trump, in an April 22 interview with Time magazine published on Friday, said “I think we’re going to make a deal with Iran” following indirect US-Iranian talks last week in which the side agreed to draw up a framework for a potential deal.
The Republican US president, speaking separately to reporters at the White House on Friday, reiterated his positive prognosis, saying: “Iran, I think, is going very well. We’ll see what happens.”
A US official said the discussions yielded “very good progress.”
Asked by Time whether he was open to meeting Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, an anti-Western hardliner who has the last say on all major state policies, or President Masoud Pezeshkian, Trump replied: “Sure.”
Expert-level talks are set to resume on Saturday in Oman, which has acted as intermediary between the longtime adversaries, with a third round of high-level nuclear discussions planned for the same day.
Israel, a close US ally and Iran’s major Middle East foe, has described the Islamic Republic’s escalating uranium enrichment program – a potential pathway to nuclear bombs – as an “existential threat.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for a complete dismantling of Iran’s nuclear capabilities, saying partial measures will not suffice to ensure Israel’s security.
Asked in the interview if he was concerned Netanyahu might drag the United States into a war with Iran, Trump said: “No.”
‘I’LL BE LEADING THE PACK’
However, when asked if the US would join a war against Iran should Israel take action, he responded: “I may go in very willingly if we can’t get a deal. If we don’t make a deal, I’ll be leading the pack.”
In March, Iran responded to a letter from Trump in which he urged it to negotiate a new deal by stating it would not engage in direct talks under maximum pressure and military threats but was open to indirect negotiations, as in the past.
Although the current talks have been indirect and mediated by Oman, US and Iranian officials did speak face-to-face briefly following the first round on April 12.
The last known face-to-face negotiations between the two countries took place under former US President Barack Obama during diplomacy that led to the 2015 nuclear accord.
Western powers accuse Iran of harboring a clandestine agenda to develop nuclear weapons capability by enriching uranium to a high level of fissile purity, above what they say is justifiable for a civilian atomic energy program.
Tehran says its nuclear program is wholly peaceful. The 2015 deal temporarily curbed its uranium enrichment activity in exchange for relief from international sanctions, but Iran resumed and accelerated enrichment after the Trump walkout in 2018.
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Trump Poised to Offer Saudi Arabia Over $100 Billion Arms Package, Sources Say
US President Donald speaking in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, DC on March 3, 2025. Photo: Leah Millis via Reuters Connect
The United States is poised to offer Saudi Arabia an arms package worth well over $100 billion, six sources with direct knowledge of the issue told Reuters, saying the proposal was being lined up for announcement during US President Donald Trump‘s visit to the kingdom in May.
The offered package comes after the administration of former President Joe Biden unsuccessfully tried to finalize a defense pact with Riyadh as part of a broad deal that envisioned Saudi Arabia normalizing ties with Israel.
The Biden proposal offered access to more advanced US weaponry in return for halting Chinese arms purchases and restricting Beijing’s investment in the country. Reuters could not establish if the Trump administration’s proposal includes similar requirements.
The White House and Saudi government communications office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A US Defense official said: “Our defense relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is stronger than ever under President Trump‘s leadership. Maintaining our security cooperation remains an important component of this partnership and we will continue to work with Saudi Arabia to address their defense needs.”
In his first term, Trump celebrated weapons sales to Saudi Arabia as good for US jobs.
Lockheed Martin Corp could supply a range of advanced weapons systems including C-130 transport aircraft, two of the sources said. One source said Lockheed would also supply missiles and radars.
RTX Corp, formerly known as Raytheon Technologies, is also expected to play a significant role in the package, which will include supplies from other major US defense contractors such as Boeing Co, Northrop Grumman Corp and General Atomics, said four of the sources.
All the sources declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.
RTX, Northrop and General Atomics declined to comment. Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Lockheed Martin spokesperson said foreign military sales are government-to-government transactions. Questions about sales to foreign governments are best addressed by the US government.
Reuters could not immediately establish how many of the deals on offer were new. Many have been in the works for some time, two of the sources said. For example, the kingdom first requested information about General Atomics’ drones in 2018, they said. Over the past 12 months, a deal for $20 billion of General Atomics’ MQ-9B SeaGuardian-style drones and other aircraft came into focus, according to one of the sources.
Several executives from defense companies are considering traveling to the region as a part of the delegation, three of the sources said.
The US has long supplied Saudi Arabia with weapons. In 2017, Trump proposed approximately $110 billion of sales to the kingdom.
As of 2018, only $14.5 billion of sales had been initiated and Congress began to question the deals in light of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
In 2021, under Biden, Congress imposed a ban on sales of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia over the Khashoggi killing and to pressure the kingdom to wind down its Yemen war, which had inflicted heavy civilian casualties.
Under US law, major international weapons deals must be reviewed by members of Congress before they are finalized.
The Biden administration began to soften its stance on Saudi Arabia in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine impacted global oil supplies. The ban on offensive weapons sales was lifted in 2024, as Washington worked more closely with Riyadh in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack to devise a plan for post-war Gaza.
A potential deal for Lockheed’s F-35 jets, which the kingdom has been reportedly interested in for years, is expected to be discussed, three of the sources said, while downplaying the chances for an F-35 deal being signed during the trip.
The United States guarantees that its close ally Israel receives more advanced American weapons than Arab states, giving it what is labeled a “Qualitative Military Edge” (QME) over its neighbors.
Israel has now owned F-35s for nine years, building multiple squadrons.
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Iran Summons Dutch Envoy to Protest Assassination Attempts Claim
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi looks on before a meeting with Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, in Tehran, Iran, Aug. 26, 2024. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
The Iranian foreign ministry summoned the Dutch ambassador to Tehran on Friday, the official IRNA news agency reported, a day after the Netherlands called in Iran‘s envoy over suspicions that Iran was behind two assassination attempts.
An Iranian foreign ministry official described the Dutch accusation as “laughable” and based on “suspicions or assumptions,” according to IRNA.
“It is regrettable that the Dutch diplomatic apparatus acts so easily on speculations injected by its security bodies and the Zionist regime [Israel], and even summons the Iranian ambassador over such an absurd fabrication,” the official, Alireza Yousefi, was quoted as saying.
The Netherlands summoned Iran‘s ambassador after the Dutch intelligence agency, known as the AIVD, said in its annual report published on Thursday that it was likely Iran was behind two assassination attempts in the Netherlands and Spain.
Two men were arrested in June 2024 in the Dutch town of Haarlem after an assassination attempt on an Iranian residing in the country, the report said.
One of the suspects was also believed to have been behind the failed assassination attempt on Spanish politician and Iran critic Alejo Vidal-Quadras in Madrid in November 2023, it said.
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