How the Biden and Trump teams worked together to get the Gaza ceasefire and hostages deal done

Source: CNN

By Kevin Liptak, Michael Williams, Nikki Carvajal, Alayna Treene and Arlette Saenz, CNN
Updated 8:02 PM EST, Wed January 15, 2025

Washington
CNN
—
When Qatar’s prime minister emerged Wednesday to declare — at long last — that a ceasefire-for-hostage deal had been struck in Gaza, representatives for two American administrations were on hand in Doha to bask in the victory.

The cooperation between the two was “almost unprecedented,” a senior Biden administration official said after the deal was clinched, made possible by a rare intersection of interests between bitter rivals who both saw an opening following Trump’s victory.

Brett McGurk, the longtime Middle East negotiator for President Joe Biden, had been planted in the Qatari capital for weeks in the hopes of a final agreement. He was joined in recent days by President-elect Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, for the final push.

At points, McGurk and Witkoff divvied up meetings across the Middle East to push the deal across the line, including critical talks between Witkoff and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week that McGurk joined by phone. If McGurk was focused primarily on the parameters of the deal, Witkoff was on hand to emphasize Trump’s desire to see a deal finished by Inauguration Day.



Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/15/politics/biden-trump-gaza-ceasefire-deal/index.html