Could the optimistic statement issued from Doha by the U.S., Egyptian and Qatari mediators yesterday have been nothing more than a deception? Hamas and Iran are treating it as such. Sources from within Hamas told Middle East Eye on Aug. 16 that “the Israeli delegation’s primary efforts were to add [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s conditions to be part of Biden’s proposal.” The sources added that, “Hamas categorically rejects Netanyahu’s conditions.”
Commenting on media reports on the latest Doha negotiations, the source said: “All the Israeli and international media leaks portraying the talks as positive, are unfounded and misleading. They [the Israelis] seek to gain time hoping to contain the regional escalation following the assassination of Haniyeh.” He was referring to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, whom the Israelis assassinated on July 31 when he went to Tehran for President Pezeshkian’s inauguration.
Among the Israeli demands that Hamas is rejecting, are Netanyahu’s conditions that Israel maintain control of the Gaza-Egypt border and Israel maintain control of the traffic of Palestinians from south to north within Gaza. A senior U.S. official told reporters on Aug. 16 that the stipulation that no Palestinian carrying arms would be allowed to travel from southern Gaza to the north “is a core provision of the deal.”
Iran’s acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani warned yesterday in a phone call with Qatari Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, that the U.S. cannot be both a backer of Israel and an impartial mediator at the same time. “I warned against the deception and disloyalty of the criminal gang ruling Tel Aviv and their most important supporter, the United States, at the negotiating table,” he said, reported IRNA.
Minister Bagheri Kani further noted that the United States is an accomplice in Israeli crimes against Gaza residents by supplying weapons of war to the Zionists and cannot be a neutral mediator. “I also emphasized the use of all capacities to force the Zionist aggressors to stop the massacre and crime in the Gaza Strip.”
