President Trump told reporters on Sunday that he thinks the negotiations on the implementation of his plan to release all remaining hostages held by Hamas and end the war in Gaza will be successfully concluded within the next few days.
Why it matters: Trump and his team are pushing hard for both Israel and Hamas to move forward with the implementation of the deal without delay, U.S. officials say.
What he's saying: "This is a great deal for Israel and for the Arab world. They are in negotiations right now. It will last a copple of days an I am hearing it is going very well. We don't need flexibility (in the negotiations), but there will always be some changes (in the deal)," Trump said.
- Trump told CNN's Jake Tapper that Hamas will face "complete obliteration" if it refuses to give up on its power in Gaza.
Driving the news: Israeli and Hamas negotiators are expected to start on Monday in Egypt with technical negotiations over the implementation of the first phases in the Trump plan.
- Several differences still remain — mainly when it comes to the scope of the initial Israeli withdrawal and the names of the Palestinian prisoners who are expected to be released.
- "There's talks ongoing, which we hope will be finalized very quickly, on the logistics of that — who's going to go in, what time are they going to be released, how is all that going to work?" Secretary of State Rubio told Fox News on Sunday.
- "I think that we are the closest we have been in a very long time to having no hostages held by Hamas, either living or deceased."
State of play: Rubio told ABC that 90% of the work has already been done and the talks in Cairo will focus on finalizing the logistics of the hostages and prisoners exchange.
- "We're hoping it will be finalized very quickly, early this week. Who knows the timeline, but this cannot take weeks or even multiple days. We want to see this happen very fast," Rubio said.
- "If it doesn't, then I think the entire deal becomes imperiled. So, this has to happen quickly for the sake of the hostages, the families, and this deal."
What to watch: A U.S. official said White House envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner are expected to join the talks in Egypt on Tuesday or Wednesday.
- "The progress looks positive right now. Everyone is making efforts to make this succeed and are expressing confidence that we'll reach a deal," the U.S. official said.
- "Witkoff and Kushner will continue to apply pressure on both sides until we get an agreement."
The big picture: Rubio confirmed to CBS's Margaret Brennan on Sunday what president Trump told Axios the day before about how Israel's international isolation was one of the reasons the war in Gaza has to end.
- "The President's observation basically is that because of the length of this war and how it's gone — we've all seen the international narrative," he said.
- "We have seen, even in our own domestic politics, some of the attacks on Israel. Whether we agree with it or not, we have seen the impact that this has had on Israel's global standing."
Rubio said in multiple interviews on Sunday that the Trump administration supports a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but believes it has to be negotiated with Israel and it has to come when certain security conditions are met.
- "That's a process. In order for that aspiration to even be credible, it has to be realistic. We can't have a Palestinian state that's governed by Hamas or by some terrorist organization whose stated purpose for existence is the destruction of the Jewish state," he said.
- "That would never work. We have to create the conditions for that. That's going to take a while, and that's going to be part of what these negotiations are about in the days to come."
Go deeper: Scoop — Trump to Netanyahu on Gaza talks: "You're always so f***ing negative"
