Washington: The United States will hold fresh consultations with key Middle Eastern partners this week as Washington intensifies diplomatic engagement over the future of Gaza amid continuing regional volatility.
“Special Envoy Witkoff will meet Friday in Miami with senior officials from Qatar, Egypt and Turkey to discuss the next phase in Gaza,” a senior State Department official said.
The Miami meeting brings together three countries that have played prominent roles in regional diplomacy since the Gaza war erupted. No agenda for the meeting has been made public.
However, the reference to the “next phase” points to discussions beyond immediate hostilities, including security arrangements, humanitarian access, and longer-term political considerations, officials here said.
Qatar and Egypt have served as central intermediaries in past negotiations over Gaza, including efforts on ceasefires and humanitarian access.
Turkey, on the other hand, has been seeking an active diplomatic role since the conflict began, engaging regional and international actors.
The Gaza conflict began after the October 2023 Hamas’s brutal attack on Israel, triggering a large-scale Israeli military response and a prolonged humanitarian crisis in the enclave. Civilian casualties and widespread destruction have drawn sustained global concern.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly cited Gaza and broader Middle East developments in recent remarks.
Speaking at a White House Hanukkah reception, Trump said, “We did our ceasefire agreement to end the war in Gaza, which everybody said was an impossibility,” and added that the United States had “begun the new era of that beautiful peace in a place that nobody thought peace was possible, the Middle East.”
In his address to the nation on Wednesday, Trump said his administration had “ended the war in Gaza, bringing for the first time in 3,000 years peace to the Middle East and secured the release of the hostages, both living and dead.”
(IANS)
