By Brooke Mallory, OAN Staff
Wednesday, August 14, 2024 4:05 PM
A senior Hamas official said the Palestinian terror group was “losing confidence” in U.S. diplomacy to broker a ceasefire in Gaza and would only participate in negotiations if they focused on implementing a specific plan announced by U.S. President Joe Biden in May.
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In May, conservative online users took to social media platforms to express their dissatisfaction with the escalating conflict between Israel and Hamas and Biden’s apparent willingness to “satisfy Hamas’ demands.”
“Joe you can’t negotiate with terrorists. Do you know what you’re doing?” one X (Twitter) user commented on the social platform.
Hamas Politburo member Osama Hamdan said: AP News He met with other Middle East correspondents on Tuesday and detailed his understanding of the issue.
“We told the mediators that any meetings should focus on discussing implementation mechanisms and setting deadlines, not on negotiating new things,” Hamdan said. “Otherwise, Hamas has no reason to participate.”
Biden’s outline and speech were cleverly described by U.S. officials in the administration as an “Israeli proposal,” which Hamas initially accepted in theory. But Israel declared that Biden’s remarks were inconsistent with their true proposal. Each side then offered revised versions, with each accusing the other of obstructing peace.
Hamdan argued that Israel was not acting in good faith, adding that the Islamic militant group did not believe the United States would pressure Israel to reach a deal.
The documents provided by Hamdan were later verified to be authentic, The Israel Times Hamas tried repeatedly to bring other countries, including Russia, Turkey and the United Nations, into the negotiations, but Israel’s response was limited to the United States, Egypt and Qatar, which were already acting as mediators.
The Hamas official added that Israel “either sent a delegation without voting rights, [to the negotiations] Or they changed delegations from one round to another, so they had to start again or they imposed new conditions.”
Hamdan also acknowledged “some difficulties” and a breakdown in communications with Hamas’ current leader, Yahya Sinwar, who is believed to be hiding deep inside a network of tunnels in the Gaza Strip, but he was adamant that this was not a major obstacle to talks.
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