President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and US President Joe Biden stressed in a phone call on Friday the importance of the concerned parties’ commitment to overcoming obstacles and showing flexibility to complete the ceasefire deal in the Gaza Strip.
During the call, El-Sisi emphasized that reaching an immediate ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip is of utmost importance at this critical time, according to the Egyptian presidential spokesperson Ahmed Fahmy.
The president stressed the ceasefire urgency for the need to halt the catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the strip and to de-escalate the conflict in the region, given its serious consequences for all parties involved.
During the call, which came within the framework of the Egypt-US intensive mediation efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and exchange captives, both presidents reviewed developments in the round of talks currently hosted by Cairo.
Earlier Friday, the White House said that progress had been made at the latest round of Gaza ceasefire talks in the Egyptian capital, which will continue over the weekend.
“There has been progress made. We need now for both sides to come together and work towards implementation,” US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said.
Preliminary talks “were constructive in nature,” he said, adding that reports about diplomacy being “near collapse” were inaccurate.
The White House also said that CIA Director William Burns was among US officials attending the Cairo talks, joining the heads of Israel’s delegation.
Cairo talks, which kicked off Thursday amid major conflicts between Israel and Hamas, did not feature representatives of Hamas.
Egypt, along with the US and Qatar, has been mediating indirect talks between Israel and Hamas to reach a ceasefire deal in the 10-month-old Israeli war on Gaza.
The latest rounds of talks were held in Doha last week, but no ceasefire deal was inked.
Since 7 October, Israel has killed and injured over 130,000 Palestinians, mostly children and women, damaged most of Gaza’s infrastructure, and displaced the majority of the population.
Source: Ahram Online
