Dubai. August 14th. INTERFAX - The Hamas movement believes that the United States cannot or does not want to influence Israel and encourage it to conclude a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip, Osama Hamdan, a member of the Hamas politburo, said in an interview with the Associated Press (AP).
"During an hour-long interview, Hamdan accused Israel of dishonesty in conducting negotiations and stated that the movement does not believe that the United States can or wants to put pressure on Israel to conclude a deal," the agency informs.
Hamdan claimed that the day after Hamas agreed to the deal, Israel launched a military operation in Rafah; at the same time, CIA Director William Burns assured Hamas, through intermediaries, that Israel agreed to the deal.
He also stressed that Hamas will participate in the negotiations only if they discuss the project proposed by US President Joe Biden in May, and not any new conditions. At the same time, during the interview, Hamdan showed several documents showing changes in the provisions of the deal; in particular, Hamas wanted the Russian Federation, Turkey and the UN to also become guarantors of the deal, while Israel agreed only to the current intermediaries - the United States, Egypt and Qatar. In addition, Hamdan acknowledged difficulties in communicating with the new leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, who, according to observers, is hiding in a tunnel system under the Gaza Strip. However, Hamdan added that these problems do not affect the course of negotiations.
As AP reminds, the United States previously noted that the project unveiled by Biden is Israeli, but Israel pointed out a number of differences between Biden's words and its ideas. Israel and Hamas, according to AP, also subsequently made changes to the draft, followed by accusations of each other creating obstacles in the negotiations.
On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed the dispatch of an Israeli delegation to Doha to negotiate a truce in Gaza and the release of hostages. Prior to that, the Israeli media reported that the delegation would include Mossad intelligence chief David Barnea, head of the Israeli General Security Service (Shin Bet) Ronen Bar and General of the Israel Defense Forces Nitzan Alon. According to the Al Jazeera TV channel, the Doha talks will begin on Thursday and last two days.
However, it is unclear whether Hamas will participate in the talks. For example, a senior representative of the movement in Lebanon, Ahmad Abdul Hadi, told The National on Wednesday that there would be no representatives of Hamas at the talks, and that first of all, the movement demands an immediate cessation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip. "The position is clear - aggression must be stopped immediately, and therefore the movement does not want to participate, does not want to start negotiations from scratch," he explained. According to him, first of all, Hamas wants to see how the consultations will go on Thursday.
Meanwhile, US Presidential Adviser Amos Hochstein, who is on a visit to Beirut, said there was no more time to postpone the truce in Gaza. "Such an agreement will also make it possible to achieve a diplomatic solution in Lebanon and prevent the outbreak of a larger war," the adviser stressed. At the same time, sources of The National said that the Hezbollah movement met with "annoyance" proposals from the United States and Western countries in exchange for a number of political and economic initiatives to limit retaliatory measures against Israel due to the death of commander Fuad Shukr. Hezbollah now believes that either US mediation is ineffective, or Washington is staging a conflict in Gaza.
