Joe Biden has wanted to ceasefire in the Middle East since before he made the historic decision three weeks ago to step out of the presidential race. And officials from the Biden administration keep telling us they’re very close to closing the circle, but they haven’t been able to get it over the line.
Now, Biden has given his first interview since that decision to step aside and he said the reason behind it was a number of Democrats who came to him and were concerned they wouldn’t win the House or the Senate because he was dragging their numbers down. He still believed that he could beat Donald Trump in a general election but he was concerned about the bigger picture. And he still believed that the efforts that he was putting in from the White House could deliver a ceasefire in the Middle East.
One of the reasons these poll numbers were so low was because people were concerned about his position on the Middle East, his ironclad commitment to Israel’s security and the lack of a ceasefire, despite what we were told was almost continuous American pressure.
Now the White House is stepping up its efforts in the next couple of days. Bill Barr – who’s the head of the spy agency the CIA – will be back in the Middle East speaking to the Egyptians, the Qataris, to representatives of Hamas, and also Israel, to try and get a ceasefire over the line. Brett McGurk who is Biden’s Middle East special adviser is also thought to be heading to the area. And we also have Anthony Blinken, the secretary of state, saying that he is prepared to fly to the Middle East if they can get a deal, but as I say, they’ve been saying this for weeks now.
They believe it’s closer now than it’s ever been, but they still haven’t been able to deliver.
