Hamas leader Haniyeh meets with Turkish president, US calls for oust from Qatar

Hamas leader Haniyeh meets with Turkish president, US calls for oust from Qatar

Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules the Gaza Strip, re-elected its previous leader, Ismail Haniyeh, as its supreme leader on the 29th of last month and held its first meeting with the Turkish president, and the United States reached an agreement with Qatar, the hostage mediator, to oust Hamas. revealed.
The AP revealed on the 31st that the Shura Council, the Islamic group's highest decision-making body, granted him a four-year term, and he did not object.
Haniyeh is a former aide to Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin, who was assassinated in an Israeli airstrike in 2004, and discussed the Gaza Strip with Turkish President Erdogan in a phone call on the 29th while in exile in Qatar, Reuters reported.
In a telephone meeting today, President Erdogan spoke to Haniyeh about Ankara's efforts for a ceasefire, humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, and the possibility of treatment for the wounded in Turkey.
The United States has stepped up pressure on Qatar, where Haniyeh has a political office, to mediate hostage negotiations and at the same time attempt to ‘oust Qatar.’
On the 16th, 113 members of the US Congress attempted to ‘pressure Qatar’ through a letter to President Biden requesting that he put pressure on countries that support Hamas, including Qatar.
The Washington Post reported on the 28th, citing an anonymous senior U.S. official, that U.S. Secretary of State Blinken, who visited Qatar for the second time, discussed 'closing Hamas' political offices in Qatar after resolving the hostage release crisis' with the Emir of Qatar at a meeting on the 27th. did.
The Washington Post reported it as an “agreement,” but Reuters reported that “there was no immediate reaction from Qatari officials.”
Hamas leader Haniyeh met with Iran's foreign minister in Qatar on the 14th of last month to discuss deadly attacks by Palestinian militant groups in Israel and "agreed to continue cooperation" to achieve Hamas' goals, Hamas said in a statement.
At a bilateral meeting held in the Qatari capital Doha, Iran's foreign minister announced the rampage as a "historic victory" that disrupted Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories.
Israeli security forces blew up the home of Hamas commander Saleh al-Arouri in the occupied West Bank on the 31st, Reuters reported.
Aruuri, who is believed to be currently living in southern Lebanon, is a proxy for Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, a leader targeted in Israeli retaliation for the October 7 attack in southern Israel.
He admitted to kidnapping and murdering three Israeli teenagers in a West Bank settlement in 2014 and became a leader while living in an Israeli prison for 17 years.
Since his release from prison, he has become a leader in Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's rival Fatah faction and has steadily expanded the ranks of Hamas political cadres and gunmen throughout the autonomous West Bank, Reuters said.
In response to the Israeli military's call on the 14th of last month for more than 1 million Palestinians to leave their homes and go south, Leader Haniyeh said, "Palestinians will not leave Gaza or the West Bank and move to Egypt." “The decision is to remain in our land,” he said in a televised speech.
Defense Minister Israel Gallant issued a statement on the 13th, saying, “Palestinian civilians who want to save their lives should heed Israel’s warning to evacuate south from the Gaza Strip.”
Israel's retaliatory attack drove Gaza's residents toward Egypt in the south, which borders the Gaza Strip, and carried out an operation to eliminate residents in neighboring Lebanon to the north, leading to a full-scale siege and bombing that cut off water supply in Gaza, and Haniyeh responded to this. He gave a speech to the residents of the Gaza Strip to 'reject migration'.
Proxy negotiations between Israel and Hamas in Qatar mediation resulted in the release of four hostages, including two Israeli women, on the 23rd.
Qatar's Prime Minister said on the 25th, "Negotiations to release the hostages held by Hamas are progressing and we hope a breakthrough will be achieved soon," but the secret negotiations between the United States and Qatar included the "ousting of Hamas leaders, including Haniyeh, from Qatar." included.
The letter requested by Republican-led lawmakers from the president said that "links with Hamas... are simply unacceptable" and that Qatar, which was a major U.S. ally and a channel for dialogue with the Taliban, not NATO after the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan. They called for the ousting of Hamas leadership.
Hamas opened a political office in Doha in 2012, where several Hamas officials, including leader Haniyeh and former leader Khalid Messal, stayed.
At a joint press conference with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Al Thani on the 13th, Secretary of State Blinken said, "We can no longer do business" with Hamas when asked whether the United States wants Doha to close Hamas' political office.
On the other hand, Qatar's Prime Minister expressed his opposition by saying that the purpose of the political office is "not to incite war, but as a way to convey and communicate peace and tranquility in the region," and that "it is important to keep communication channels open."
Even before the Hamas attack, the United States attempted to impose sanctions and crack down on cryptocurrency exchanges centered in Qatar, and after the surprise attack by Hamas, it announced additional sanctions to disrupt financing for Hamas, with investment portfolios and Gaza being among other targets. They pointed out people involved in Earth-based cryptocurrency exchanges.
The United States announced a second round of sanctions on the 27th, including officials of Hamas in Iran and members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, additional assets in Hamas' investment portfolio and people who facilitate sanctions evasion by Hamas-linked companies.
Haniyeh, a Qatar-based leader, served as Palestinian prime minister after Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006 and led the takeover of the Gaza Strip a year later by militants led by moderate President Abbas and his rival Fatah.
He was later elected as the leader of Hamas in 2017, and worked as the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip even before his election. He left the Gaza Strip in 2019 after passing on the position of leader and lived in exile in Turkey and Qatar.
Hamas leads the armed movement in the Islamist movement seeking the destruction of Israel and has fought four wars against Israel since taking control of the Gaza Strip in 2007.
The most recent war took place in May and there were several small-scale battles over a five-year period.