CAIRO: Hamas said on Sunday that a new proposal meant to bridge the gaps between Israel and the armed group over a Gaza ceasefire were too close to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent positions.
Hamas’ statement came only hours after US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken arrived in Israel in a bid to secure a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal, dimming hopes for an imminent breakthrough in negotiations.
Hamas received the new proposal from mediators, Qatar, Egypt and the United States, following a two-day round of talks in Doha.
It said that the new proposal was aligned with Netanyahu, who refuses to end the war and withdraw Israeli forces from Gaza, including from the border with Egypt, two conditions the group sees as the basis for any agreement.
“We hold Netanyahu fully responsible for thwarting the mediators’ efforts, delaying the agreement, and for the lives of his prisoners who are exposed to the same danger as our people due to his ongoing aggression and systematic targeting of all aspects of life in the Gaza Strip,” said Hamas.
“We call on the mediators to assume their responsibilities and compel the occupation to implement what was agreed upon,” Hamas said, adding that it was fully committed to the previous July proposal.
Hamas says new Gaza proposal too close to Israel’s demands
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Hamas says new Gaza proposal too close to Israel’s demands
- Hamas received the new proposal from mediators, Qatar, Egypt and the US, following a round of talks in Doha
- It said new proposal was aligned with Netanyahu, who refuses to end the war and withdraw Israeli forces from Gaza, including from the border with Egypt
Syria Kurds chief says ‘all efforts’ being made to salvage deal with Damascus
- Abdi said the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurds’ de facto army, remained committed to the deal
- The two sides were working toward “mutual understanding” on military integration and counter-terrorism
DAMASCUS: Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said Thursday that “all efforts” were being made to prevent the collapse of talks on an agreement with Damascus to integrate his forces into the central government.
The remarks came days after Aleppo saw deadly clashes between the two sides before their respective leaders ordered a ceasefire.
In March, Abdi signed a deal with Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa to merge the Kurds’ semi-autonomous administration into the government by year’s end, but differences have held up its implementation.
Abdi said the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurds’ de facto army, remained committed to the deal, adding in a statement that the two sides were working toward “mutual understanding” on military integration and counter-terrorism, and pledging further meetings with Damascus.
Downplaying the year-end deadline, he said the deal “did not specify a time limit for its ending or for the return to military solutions.”
He added that “all efforts are being made to prevent the collapse of this process” and that he considered failure unlikely.
Abdi also repeated the SDF’s demand for decentralization, which has been rejected by Syria’s Islamist authorities, who took power after ousting longtime ruler Bashar Assad last year.
Turkiye, an important ally of Syria’s new leaders, sees the presence of Kurdish forces on its border as a security threat.
In Damascus this week, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan stressed the importance of the Kurds’ integration, having warned the week before that patience with the SDF “is running out.”
The SDF control large swathes of the country’s oil-rich north and northeast, and with the support of a US-led international coalition, were integral to the territorial defeat of the Daesh group in Syria in 2019.
Syria last month joined the anti-IS coalition and has announced operations against the jihadist group in recent days.
