When President-elect Donald J. Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday to press him for a Gaza ceasefire deal, he had someone on speaker: Brett H. McGurk, president. Longtime Biden Middle East negotiator.
It was a striking example of cooperation between two men representing bitter political rivals whose relationship has been described as poisonous. Rarely, if ever, have teams of current and new presidents from different parties worked together at such an important moment, with the fate of American lives and the future of a devastating war at stake.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden have publicly claimed credit for the breakthrough.
“This EPIC ceasefire agreement could only have happened following our historic victory in November,” Mr. Trump wrote on his social media site even before that. the deal was officially announced in the Middle East.
At the White House, Mr. Biden told reporters that his administration had worked tirelessly for months to convince both sides to end the fighting. He called it “one of the most difficult negotiations I have ever experienced” and praised “an extraordinary team of American diplomats who worked non-stop for months to make this happen.”
As he left the room, a reporter asked Mr. Biden, “Who gets the credit for this, Mr. President, you or Trump?” Mr. Biden stopped, turned and smiled.
“Is this a joke?” he asked.
But despite tensions between the current president and the next, their representatives in the Middle East have described a cooperative working relationship in the weeks since Election Day.
“Brett is in the lead,” Mr. Witkoff said last week at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s club in Florida, describing the working relationship. That description was accurate by all accounts, even if it did not match what Mr. Trump had said moments before in one of several statements describing his negotiators as critical players.
In fact, Mr. Trump’s threat that “all hell” would break loose If no agreement had been reached before his inauguration on Monday, it could have motivated Hamas leaders to make final decisions. But people close to the negotiations said Wednesday’s announcement of a deal to temporarily end hostilities in Gaza was the result of months of work by Mr. McGurk in the Middle East, capped by several weeks of carefully Mr. Witkoff’s contact details.
Mr. Witkoff, 67, a blunt real estate investor from the Bronx, largely moved to Qatar for the negotiations, knowing that whatever Mr. McGurk negotiated, he would have to execute. In fact, the 33 hostages who will be released under the ceasefire agreement may not regain their freedom until Inauguration Day or after. The ceasefire will expire six weeks later unless phase 2 of the agreement comes into effect.
By design, the goal was to send a unified message that the fighting must stop and the hostages held by Hamas must be released. A person close to the negotiations, who like others spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the discussions, said Mr. McGurk was more involved in working out the details of the deal, while the Mr. Witkoff’s role was to make it clear that Mr. Trump wanted a deal at the time of his inauguration.
The president-elect also set some early parameters in his relationship with Mr Netanyahu – who, for all his support for Mr Trump in the election, was seen by the Trump camp as dragging his feet on a deal. Mr. Witkoff traveled to Israel from Doha on Saturday – despite the Sabbath – to underline the message that Mr. Netanyahu had to get on board.
Mr. Witkoff’s work, including meeting with Mr. Netanyahu, helped Mr. McGurk and the Biden administration put pressure on both sides during the negotiations, according to the person familiar with the talks.
It was not at all clear whether such an arrangement would work in the days immediately after Mr. Trump won a second term.
He and Mr. Biden have barely spoken in recent weeks, their already acrimonious relationship weighed down by the Trump team’s determination to clean out career White House staff and the Biden team giving last-minute orders to lock down the new administration.
In his remarks on Wednesday, Mr. Biden acknowledged a certain level of cooperation and respect between their aides.
“This agreement was developed and negotiated under my administration, but its terms will be implemented substantially by the next administration,” Mr. Biden told reporters. “Over the past few days, we have spoken as one team.”
But he did not give Mr. Trump more credit for his contribution to that effort. For his part, the president-elect said he was “delighted” that the American hostages were freed, but he did not mention Mr. Biden or the work of the current administration.
“We have accomplished so much without even being in the White House,” Mr. Trump wrote. “Just imagine all the wonderful things that will happen when I return to the White House and my administration is fully confirmed, so that it can secure more victories for America!”
Both leaders left it up to staffers to describe how they worked together in the Gaza negotiations.
A person familiar with the effort said a close partnership between Mr. McGurk and Mr. Witkoff was part of an “incredibly effective” process by which the Biden administration finalized a deal that the Trump administration is expected to oversee.
This cooperation began shortly after Mr. Trump won the election and appointed Mr. Witkoff as his envoy to the region. Biden administration officials have said they believe momentum for a deal began before that, when Mr. Biden helped negotiate a separate deal to end fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. That isolated Hamas and helped persuade the group that a ceasefire was in its interests, according to Biden officials.
