Biden administration wants to achieve Gaza cease-fire in next 2 weeks: Blinken

ISTANBUL

The US' outgoing Joe Biden administration is “working intensely” to achieve a cease-fire in the Palestinian besieged enclave of Gaza within the next two weeks, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday.

“We very much want to bring this over the finish line in the next two weeks,” Blinken told a news conference in the South Korean capital Seoul, pointing to Jan. 20 when the Biden administration leaves the White House.

He said there had been an “intensified engagement” including by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas on reaching a deal, “but we are yet to see agreement on final points.”

Blinken paid a two-day trip to South Korea, where he held talks with his counterpart Cho Tae-yul, as part of his final visit before the Jan. 20 inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump.

Later the duo addressed a joint news conference.

“We need Hamas to make the final necessary decisions to complete the agreement and to fundamentally change the circumstance for the hostages, getting them out, for people in Gaza, bringing them relief, and for the region as a whole, creating an opportunity to actually move forward to something better, more secure for everyone involved,” Blinken said.

“If we don’t get it (cease-fire) across the finish line in the next two weeks, I’m confident that it will get its completion at some point, hopefully sooner rather than later,” said Blinken.

The Israeli army has continued a genocidal war on Gaza that has killed more than 45,800 people, mostly women and children, since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.