By Daphne Psaledakis
JEDDAH (Reuters) -President Donald Trump’s hostage envoy Adam Boehler’s direct meetings with Palestinian militant group Hamas on the release of hostages in Gaza was a “one-off situation” and as of now “hasn’t borne fruit,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday.
“That was a one-off situation in which our special envoy for hostages, whose job it is to get people released, had an opportunity to talk directly to someone who has control over these people and was given permission and encouraged to do so. He did so,” Rubio told reporters en route to Saudi Arabia.
“As of now, it hasn’t borne fruit. Doesn’t mean he was wrong to try, but our primary vehicle for negotiations on this front will continue to be Mr. Witkoff and the work he’s doing through Qatar,” Rubio said, in reference to Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff.
The discussions between Boehler and Hamas broke with a decades-old policy by Washington against negotiating with groups the U.S. brands as terrorist organizations.
A senior Hamas official on Sunday told Reuters that the meetings between Hamas leaders and Boehler in recent days focused on the release of an American-Israeli dual national being held by the militant group in Gaza.
Boehler told CNN on Sunday that the talks were “very helpful” and, in an interview with Israel’s N12 TV channel, he said that the Trump administration was focused on getting all the remaining 59 hostages out and ending the war.
Witkoff told reporters at the White House last week that gaining the release of Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old from New Jersey believed to be the last living American hostage held by Hamas in Gaza, was a “top priority for us”.
The Islamist militant group carried out a cross-border raid into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, triggering an Israeli offensive into the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.
Hamas militants killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
(Reporting by Daphne PsaledakisWriting by Humeyra Pamuk, editing by Deepa Babington)
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