Sources tell ToI that after Biden requested terror leaders’ expulsion, president-elect’s team urged reversal of move, deeming Doha’s mediation critical to get a deal before Jan. 20
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At the behest of officials from US President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team, Qatar summoned Hamas leaders back to Doha this week in order to revive hostage negotiations, two sources familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel on Friday
Qatar booted the Hamas leaders in late October, with Biden administration officials telling The Times of Israel that they requested Doha order their expulsion due to the terror group’s months-long refusal to constructively engage in negotiations on a ceasefire and hostage release deal.
Qatar maintains that the decision to oust Hamas officials was one it made on its own, framing the move as part of a decision to temporarily halt its mediation efforts, which it vowed to only resume when both sides demonstrate willingness to negotiate in good faith.
From Qatar, the Hamas leaders fled to Turkey, which also has close ties to the Palestinian terror group, though the Biden administration quickly spoke out against Ankara’s decision to allow them in.
Shortly after they arrived in Turkey, Donald Trump was elected the next president of the United States.
That message has intensified since Trump’s election victory and was apparently passed along by Trump’s newly appointed Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff to Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani during a recent meeting in Doha, one of the sources said.
“We had heard this from his team… that they want this (hostage deal) to be resolved now — today, even,” Al Thani told Sky News on Wednesday.
One of the sources stressed that the return of Hamas officials is only temporary in the context of the new hostage negotiation effort.
Qatar has worked alongside the US and Egypt for months on indirect talks between Israel and Hamas to secure an agreement to end the war in Gaza and release the hostages kidnapped by Hamas into the enclave on October 7. The mediators succeeded in brokering a weeklong pause in the fighting in November 2023 during which over 100 hostages were released, but talks have failed to materialize since, as the war drags on and another 100 hostages still remain in Gaza.
After brokering a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah last week, the Biden administration maintained that deal left Hamas isolated and potentially more willing to compromise in hostage negotiations.
The US said it was launching another effort to secure a deal alongside Egypt, Qatar and Turkey.
Qatar has yet to publicly confirm having resumed its mediation efforts, though a source familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel on Thursday that it has.
A spokesperson for the Trump transition team did not respond to requests for comment.
A new Egyptian proposal or an Israeli one?
Earlier this week, aides to Netanyahu told reporters that Egypt had crafted a new proposal that had them increasingly optimistic. They pointed to a fiery threat made by Trump on social media in which he warned of “hell to pay” in the Middle East if all hostages were not released prior to his inauguration, and they argued that Hamas is facing unprecedented pressure to compromise.
Netanyahu’s aides said the Egyptian proposal envisioned a temporary ceasefire and was largely the same as the first phase of the three-phase framework that the mediators had been pushing for months.
However, rather than the 40 to 60-day initial ceasefire being followed up with another two phases that included a permanent end to the war, this latest Egyptian proposal would allow Israel to resume fighting after it ends, rather than having to effectively commit up-front to a permanent ceasefire, the Netanyahu aides said.
But an Israeli official familiar with the talks and an Arab diplomat told The Times of Israel that no such Egyptian proposal exists and that what Netanyahu’s aides discussed was actually a new Israeli proposal that was passed along to Egypt.
The Israeli and Arab officials say that the chances that the Netanyahu-backed proposal will succeed are very low because Hamas won’t budge from its refusal to release the hostages unless Israel agrees to end the war and withdraw its troops from Gaza in exchange.
Egypt would not craft a proposal that doesn’t lead to a permanent ceasefire, the Arab diplomat said.
Netanyahu has vowed he will not agree to proposals that require Israel to permanently end the war in exchange for the release of the remaining hostages. His far-right coalition partners have threatened to collapse the coalition if he does so, with some of them fearing it will prevent Israel from re-establishing settlements in Gaza while others are concerned it will allow for Hamas’s revival.
Wit the Hamas leaders now back in Qatar, they hosted Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan at the terror group’s political office in Doha to discuss the hostage negotiations.
Fidan’s office posted pictures of the meeting, showing the Turkish foreign minister sitting alongside Hamas Shura Council chair Mohammed Darwish as senior Hamas officials Khalil al-Hayya, Moussa Abu Marzouk, Nizar Awadallah and Zaher Jabarin looked on.
Notably, the Hamas readout referred to Darwish as the head of the group’s Leadership Council — a five-member body established by former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar shortly before he was killed by Israel in October.
Content retrieved from: https://www.timesofisrael.com/trump-aides-asked-qatar-to-recall-ousted-hamas-chiefs-in-bid-to-revive-hostage-talks/.
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