The fate of a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas is “largely a question that is going to be answered” by the leader of Hamas, CIA Deputy Director David Cohen said on Wednesday.
Cohen did not refer to Hamas’s leader, Yahya Sinwar, by name. The Israelis were showing seriousness in the negotiations, Cohen told an intelligence and national security summit in Washington.
Mediators from the US, Egypt, and Qatar have been working to strike a deal between the sides and prevent a direct Iranian attack against Israel, which they fear would spark a broader regional war.
On those efforts, Cohen said: “There may be episodes where people would step back from the brink, but I don’t think anybody can be confident that that effort to control escalation is something that … any party in that region” can control.
The US has sent messages to Iran via third-party allies, urging it to refrain from escalating the situation.
Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Al Thani met with US special envoy Brett McGurk about Gaza hostages and regional issues after he visited Tehran on Monday, a US official confirmed to The Jerusalem Post.
“Topics included the ceasefire and hostage release deal, as well as regional issues following the prime minister’s visit to Iran,” the official said of the Tuesday meeting in Doha.
Al Thani has been instrumental in the talks for the release of the remaining hostages and to end the 10-month Gaza war.
Al Thani’s Tehran trip
The Qatari prime minister was in Tehran on Monday, in the aftermath participating in Sunday’s high-level US-led Cairo summit on the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, which was led by CIA Director William Burns.
An Israeli negotiating team with officials from the Mossad, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), and the IDF were in Doha on Wednesday for working-level talks. Israel’s security cabinet is set to meet on Thursday.
The US has hoped that a Gaza ceasefire deal would prevent retaliatory attacks against Israel by Iran and its proxy Hezbollah, which Washington fears could spark a regional war.
Newly installed Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Al Thani in Tehran on Monday that the Islamic Republic would back any Gaza ceasefire deal that Hamas agreed to.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian appeared to hint on Tuesday, the day after his meeting with Al Thani, that the Islamic Republic might be open to reviving talks with the West on its nuclear program, according to a report in the Associated Press. Such talks have been dormant for two years.