By Aamer Madhani
President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming Middle East envoy recently visited Israel and Qatar for high-level talks on landing a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza, a U.S. official said Thursday.
Steve Witkoff, who was tapped by Trump to serve as his special envoy to the region, met separately in recent weeks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, according to the official, who was not authorized to comment publicly about the sensitive talks and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The official added that Witkoff has kept in contact with Biden’s foreign policy team as the incoming Trump and outgoing Biden administrations have agreed to coordinate on efforts to free hostages who remain in captivity in Gaza.
The official also confirmed that there has been recent progress on ceasefire talks to end the grinding war, though there are currently no plans for Biden to dispatch
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