(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) The US on Tuesday expressed its support for the 72-hour Cairo-brokered ceasefire that took hold between Israel and Hamas at 8:00 am local time in the region.
"(It) appears both sides are respecting and abiding by (the deal) at this point," said White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest.
"We have noted for some time that an immediate cease-fire was critical to bringing about the kind of calm in which negotiations could occur." State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki pointed to Secretary of State John Kerry as the man who set the stage for the ceasefire.
"I think our engagement over the past 10 days has built and led to the point we reached last night," she said. "There are two important factors that obviously have changed over the course of the last couple of days. One of them is that Israel completed work on the tunnels - at their insistence of course.
"The cease-fire agreed to last week allowed for Israel to continue that work, so that's something the United States supported," she explained. "The second factor is of course that there is growing concern and pressure to see an end to the rocket attacks but also to see an end to the humanitarian crisis that we've seen on the ground in Gaza." Psaki noted that Kerry had "more than a hundred phone calls related to the cease-fire.
"We all know he spent five days in Cairo, a day in Paris, a day in Israel," she said. "The president's spoken with Prime Minister Netanyahu three times over the course of the last few weeks as well." When asked about US participation in Mideast negotiations moving forward, Psaki said the Obama Administration is "still determining who and at what level.
"Obviously we're in discussions not only internally but with the Israelis and the Egyptians about that," she said.
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