Jeremy Bowen: There's now a realistic chance of ending the war - but it's not over yet

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BBC

Even for Donald Trump, a president who revels in his place at the centre of world events, it was a dramatic moment. The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio interrupted a televised meeting Trump was chairing in Washington DC on Wednesday. He handed over a message that the President needed to tell the world that they had a deal. Trump told the audience in the room – and millions more who have now seen the video – that he would have to leave. "They're going to need me…" he said, interrupting the day's business. "I have to go now to try to solve some problems in the Middle East." Israel and Hamas signed off the first phase of what Donald Trump intends to be a wider agreement after three days of indirect talks in Egypt.

EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK 'I have to go now to try to solve some problems in the Middle East,' Trump announced after Rubio whispered to him

Mediators from Qatar and Egypt went between the Israeli and Palestinian negotiators who were on separate floors of a hotel in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh. To add heft to the talks, and to keep the pressure on the Israelis, Donald Trump sent his son-in-law Jared Kushner and his envoy Steve Witkoff. The prime minister of Qatar and the intelligence chiefs of Egypt and Turkey were there to do the same job for the Hamas delegation. The agreement is a major breakthrough. It does not mean the war is over.