The president of the United States, Joe Biden, has declared in his latest speech that is on the verge of reaching a ceasefire agreement that will end the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip after more than a year of bombings.
The president, who will hand over power to Donald Trump on January 20, is rushing through his final days in the White House to try to end a conflict that has damaged his popularity and could stain his record at the head of the United States.
“We are on the verge of finally having a proposal that I outlined in detail months ago. come to fruition“, he indicated at an event at the State Department, accompanied by the head of US diplomacy, Antony Blinken.
While a US delegation maintains contacts with Hamas in Qatar, the president stated that is “pressing hard to close the pact” that ends the war and frees the hostages.
“Many innocent people have been murderedmany communities have been destroyed. The Palestinian people deserve peace and the right to determine their own future. “Israel deserves peace and real security, and the hostages deserve to be reunited with their families,” he said.
Biden took office in 2021 with the promise of rebuild alliances with Washington’s traditional partners damaged by the isolationism of Trump’s first term (2017-2021).
But the democratic leader has been highly criticized for its strong support for Israel in its offensive on Gaza, which began in response to the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 and which has left an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave.
Defense of Ukraine
The outgoing president also He dedicated part of his speech to the war in Ukrainewhich broke out after the Russian invasion of February 2022 and which has occupied a good part of its mandate. He claimed the international coalition in support of Ukraine woven under his leadershipwhose future is uncertain given that Trump has questioned the shipment of weapons to kyiv and has promised to end the conflict as soon as possible.
“Ukraine remains a free and independent country with potential for a bright future. “We have laid the foundation for the next Administration to protect the bright future of the Ukrainian people,” he declared.
Biden noted that three years after the invasion, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, “has failed in all his strategic objectives. When he invaded Ukraine, he thought he would conquer kyiv in a matter of days, but the truth is, since that war started, I am the only one who has visited central kyiv. Not him,” he stressed.
He also claimed that he has managed to avoid “a war between two nuclear powers” – the United States and Russia – thanks to his strategy of arming Ukraine so that it can defend itself without sending US troops on the ground.
China vs. USA
The wars in Gaza and Ukraine have captured much of the attention during Biden’s presidency, despite the fact that his foreign policy priority was the rivalry with China and the search for alliances to stop the Asian giant’s growing influence in the world.
Biden, who has maintained the trade and tariff war with China that Trump started in his first termpredicted this Monday that The Chinese economy will “never” surpass the US. “Many experts predicted that it was inevitable that China’s economy would surpass ours. According to the latest predictions, they will never surpass us,” he said.
About the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistanone of the most controversial episodes of his mandate, the president claimed that he fulfilled his promise to end the two decades of conflict. “Ending the war was the right thing to do and I think history will reflect that,” he said.
The president also warned that The climate crisis is “the greatest existential threat to humanity” and regretted that several Trump collaborators deny climate change: “I think they are from another century. They are wrong. Totally wrong.”
The Democratic leader added that leaves the White House leaving the United States “at the forefront” in the development of artificial intelligence and asked that this leadership be maintained because said technology has the power to transform economies, governments and entire societies.