CGTN Europe spoke Yossi Mekelberg, Associate fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00Let's talk now to Yossi Makkelberg, the Associate Fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Programme
00:06at Chatham House, the think tank in London. Yossi, you're a seasoned veteran Middle East watcher.
00:12Why this delay? What's going on?
00:17Good afternoon. I think because there is a gap between the announcements yesterday on the agreement
00:25and when it comes into effect on Sunday, these four days allow both sides to try and get some changes
00:36into this agreement. They're probably quite minor. It's great this kind of space for both or either of the sides
00:46to try and to jump into better positions. But it's hard to see after the announcement by the Prime Minister of Qatar
00:55and then by President Biden, President-elect Trump, the disagreement is done, that either of the sides,
01:01definitely both of them, will talk from there.
01:05What do you think are the biggest stumbling blocks?
01:10I think most of the stumbling blocks have been resolved. The question is going beyond what they already agreed.
01:20So there are some technicalities, for instance, in terms of who is released first, when it comes to the hostages
01:30or when it comes to the prisoners. What prisoners, Palestinian prisoners, are going to be released?
01:38At what stage Israel will withdraw from the Philadelphia or the Netzarim corridor?
01:45So there are more about the timescale and how it's going to happen, the technicalities, than the principles of this.
01:52How do you think the next few days look?
01:57I think, unfortunately, both sides will try to prove to each other they still have enough capability to help each other.
02:04And this is, you know, creating this for days, probably the need for logistics, for instance, for the Israeli cabinet to approve,
02:13to ensure that there is a possibility to release the prisoners.
02:20So to feed each other is the seal that they are still standing by the end of this war.
02:28You sound optimistic. I mean, is there a chance that this deal might break down?
02:36There is always the possibility that something major is going to derail it.
02:42It's not about being optimistic. It's mainly about being kind of cautiously optimistic or look at the situation.
02:49And you asked me a few weeks ago, at this point, I think that, and also the announcement by the mediator,
02:57in case that either of the sides decide to actually violate what they already agreed,
03:04they know there are going to be consequences from the international community.
03:08So it's very hard to see that it happened.
03:12But it's not beyond the realm of possibility that either of the sides could provoke each other to do something that will derail the agreement.
03:20Yossi, I'm sure we'll talk again in the coming days. For the moment, thank you.
03:25Yossi Mekelberg from Chatham House in London.