A senior Biden administration official suggests that the Syrian rebels’ overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad improves chances to secure a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza.
In a briefing with reporters, the senior US official says the developments in Syria “dramatically changed the balance of power” in the region, referring to the weakening of Iran and its proxies.
Accordingly, the US is intensifying efforts to secure a hostage deal, the official says.
The US has several times over the past year speculated that various developments in the region — including Israel’s killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and a ceasefire in Lebanon — opened windows to secure a hostage deal. However, negotiations have yet to bear fruit.
Hamas has refused to budge from its demands for a permanent end to the war and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza in exchange for releasing the remaining 100 hostages, and Israel is insisting that it will only agree to temporary ceasefires along with one that allows it to initially maintain a troop presence in Gaza.
Regardless, the overthrow of Assad has created a new balance of power in Syria that is “far more aligned with American interests,” the US official says.
The senior US official says Iran bucked President Biden’s warning not to take advantage of Hamas’s October 7 onslaught to further target Israel through its proxies, and has ended up paying a massive price for that decision.
No comments:
Post a Comment