At the request of prisoner family members, President Herzog had called Musk, who was named by US President-elect Donald Trump to lead the newly established Department of Government Efficiency (Doge).
Elon Musk, a tech entrepreneur, was reportedly contacted earlier this week by Israeli President Isaac Herzog to consider resuming negotiations to secure the release of Israeli captives held by Hamas militants in Gaza.According to a source close to Herzog, CNN claimed that at the request of the hostage family, President Herzog had called Musk, who was nominated by US President-elect Donald Trump to lead the newly established Department of Government Efficiency (Doge).
According to the source, the discussion was a component of Herzog's "wide and fairly extensive efforts to apply pressure on all parties" in order to negotiate a peace agreement.
According to the source, Musk and Herzog's most recent talk was "general in nature, and from a policy to put pressure wherever pressure can be placed to keep the issue" front and center.
The unorthodox approach to Musk highlights the CEO of Tesla's disproportionate role throughout the transition and the extent to which the hostage families must go in order to give the situation more urgency.
According to earlier reports, the tech billionaire met with Iran's envoy to the UN in an attempt to ease tensions between Washington and Tehran. According to reports, during the meeting, Iran's ambassador urged Musk to conduct business in Tehran and request waivers from US sanctions.
The Iranian mission to the UN declined to comment on any developments, and neither the Trump transition team nor Iran's envoy to the UN acknowledged the meeting's reports.
The event follows days after US President-elect Donald Trump threatened to declare that if the captives in Gaza are not freed by his inauguration on January 20, 2025, there will be "ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East."
About 100 hostages, both dead and alive, are reportedly still being kept in the besieged enclave; 96 of them were captured during Hamas' October 7 raid on Israel last year.
Musk had visited Israel in November 2023 to meet with hostage families and Israeli politicians.
Families of those detained are putting tremendous pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to secure their release.
Trump is counting on a new round of negotiations to be successful and has blamed departing US President Joe Biden for not securing the hostages' release.
In the onslaught on Israel last year, which claimed 1,200 lives, Hamas captured 250 people. The remainder have remained in captivity after numerous unsuccessful rounds of indirect discussions between the US and Israel with mediators Egypt and Qatar, although scores were freed in a brief Israeli hostage-for-Palestinian prisoner exchange in November of last year.
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