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The United States said it will warn the Turkish government that there may be “no more business as usual” with Hamas after members of the Palestinian militant group’s political leadership reportedly transferred to Türkiye.
“We do not believe that the leaders of a vicious terrorist organization should be able to live comfortably anywhere, and that is certain,” State Department spokesman Matt Miller told reporters Monday. including the major city of one of our key allies and partners.”
Miller added that he could neither confirm nor deny reports that officials in the Palestinian militant group’s political leadership had moved from Qatar to its NATO ally. But he said: “There can no longer be business as usual with Hamas.”
The US warning comes in the context of Biden administration officials looking for blame Hamas because of the failure of ceasefire negotiations with Israel, which have stalled for months.
American officials are hoping that progress with Lebanon in ending the conflict between Hizbollah and Israel could also give momentum to the Hamas-Israel talks. Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to US President Joe Biden, is expected to arrive in the Lebanese capital on Tuesday to try to advance the negotiations.
A Saudi diplomat told the Financial Times that a number of Hamas officials had moved from Qatar Türkiye after Doha suspended its role as a mediator in negotiations aimed at ending the war in Gaza and securing the release of the remaining hostages held in the Gaza Strip.
Qatar warned the group last month that if it was not willing to seriously engage in negotiations it would not be able to retain its political position in the Gulf state. A second person familiar with the matter said some Hamas officials were in Türkiye.
The Arab diplomat said it was unclear whether the visit of Hamas officials to Türkiye, which has long been sympathetic to the group, was permanent or temporary.
A Turkish Foreign Ministry official said members of the Hamas political office “visit Türkiye from time to time.”
“Claims that the Hamas political office has moved to Türkiye do not reflect reality,” the official added.
Qatar has hosted Hamas’s political office since 2012 and is one of the main players, along with the US and Egypt, seeking to broker a deal to secure the release of Israeli hostages and a permanent ceasefire. aims to end the more than year-long war in Hamas. Gaza.
However, the gas-rich Gulf nation, a key US ally, has been criticized by some Washington lawmakers for its role in organizing the rebel group’s political leadership.
Doha is also angered by hostility from Israeli politicians, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Qatar has been frustrated by the failure of both Netanyahu’s far-right government and Hamas’s leadership to reach compromise and strike a deal that crosses the line.
Negotiations aimed at ending the conflict that erupted after the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas that killed about 1,200 people have been deadlocked for months, according to Israeli officials.
Hamas insists it will accept only one version of the multi-phase deal leading to a permanent ceasefire and Israel’s withdrawal from the strip in exchange for the release of hostages that it approved in early July.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu has repeatedly ruled out a permanent end to the war and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the devastated Gaza strip, where Israel’s offensive has killed more than 43,000 people, according to Palestinian health officials. .
