US Secretary of State Antony Blinken asked Qatar earlier this month to make Hamas aware of two options: either to deliver on the captives and ceasefire deal, which will in turn stop the war on Gaza, or risk getting expelled from Doha, Qatar's capital, as multiple senior members of Hamas are there, two US officials revealed to CNN.

Sources familiar with this matter unveiled that Blinken delivered this message to Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani during a meeting in Washington on March 5.

US officials said that Qatar understood the message and received it without major pushback.

It is still unknown whether Qatar has delivered this message to Hamas, as Qatari officials did not comment on the specific meeting, but they said that they are putting a great deal of pressure on Hamas. 

'Getting closer' to a deal

A US official said that this message from Blinken this month was due to US frustrations over the slow pace of progress in the negotiations.

A former US envoy to the Middle East, Dennis Ross, said “I would have liked to have seen it done even earlier. I can’t be sure that it wasn’t done, but their behavior suggests to me that they weren’t feeling pressure from us over there."

“My guess is early on, there was a difference in assessment from the administration, they thought – they would get more responsiveness by not putting pressure on that [Hamas]. I think as time went on, they’ve become somewhat more frustrated,” Ross added. 

However, Blinken had a more positive tone this week, as he said on March 20 that the negotiations are “getting closer” to a deal.

“I think the gaps are narrowing, and I think an agreement is very much possible,” Blinken stated.

Blinken says Hamas can be 'dealt with' without the Rafah invasion

After meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on March 21, Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed that the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, could be "dealt with" without resorting to military action in Rafah.

"Hamas can be effectively dealt with without a major ground operation in Rafah," Blinken stated in a press briefing.

The statement was issued on the same day that Egypt's Foreign Ministry announced that the Foreign Ministers of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, as well as the UAE Secretary of State for International Cooperation and the Executive Chief of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), had called for the opening of all border crossings between "Israel" and the Gaza Strip.

Blinken has set on his sixth tour to the Middle East, starting with a visit to Saudi Arabia, to hold talks with Prince Mohammed Bin Salman regarding the Israeli war on Gaza, then leaving to Egypt on March 21, and later concluding it with a visit to the Israeli occupation.