WASHINGTON: CIA Director Bill Burns is likely in Egyptian capital for talks on freeing Israeli hostages held in Gaza Strip.
The White House also Friday confirmed that talks would take place this weekend with the US representation.
According to the US media, Burns would meet in the Cairo with Mossad chief David Barnea, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani and Egypt’s intelligence chief Abbas Kamel.
John Kirby, National Security Council spokesman, declined to confirm if the CIA chief would be involved in the talks but told media-men that “the United States will be present for those talks.”
He also said one of President Biden requests to Israeli PM Netanyahu during a call the day before was “getting back at the table in negotiations in Cairo and getting a hostage deal done, empowering his negotiators to come to (a) conclusion on this.”
Hamas fighters took around 250 hostages, about 130 of whom remain in Gaza Strip, including 34 whom the Israeli army says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has so far killed more than 33,000 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
The US, Qatar and Egypt have been engaged in weeks of behind-the-scenes talks in a bid to secure a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails.
