The head of the CIA is expected in Paris on Friday or Saturday to try to relaunch talks with Israel on a truce in Gaza, a Western source close to the matter told AFP.
Israel gave the green light on Thursday to the resumption of negotiations for the release of hostages held in Gaza, while talks on a truce with the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas have been bogged down for months.
This Western source thus partly confirmed information published earlier by American media.
According to the American website Axios, CIA chief William Burns is due to travel to Europe “in the next few days” to meet the head of Mossad, the Israeli secret service, and the Prime Minister of Qatar, in an effort to relaunch talks. According to the New York Times, it is unclear whether Qatari and Egyptian negotiators will take part directly in the planned talks between Burns and his Israeli counterpart David Barnea.
At the end of January, William Burns and senior officials from Egypt, Qatar and Israel had already met in Paris to discuss a truce agreement in the Gaza war.
In early May, indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, failed to produce a truce agreement associated with the release of Palestinian hostages and prisoners held by Israel.
With AFP
