Washington has made it clear to Turkey that there can be no more “business as usual” with regard to the Hamas terrorist organization, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday.
At a daily press briefing, Miller would not confirm recent reports that Hamas’s senior leadership had relocated to Turkey from Qatar, but said that he was not in a position to dispute them.
“We don’t believe the leaders of a vicious terrorist organization should be living comfortably anywhere, and that certainly includes in a major city of one of our key allies and partners,” he said.
“Remember that Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization that has murdered a number of Americans, continues to hold to this day seven American citizens hostage, and of course that’s not even to speak of the citizens of other countries that it has murdered and that it has held hostage,” he continued.
“So to the extent that members of Hamas are in Türkiye or in any country, look, a number of these individuals are under U.S. indictment, have been under U.S. indictment for some time, and we believe that they should be turned over to the United States,” he added.
Asked if there would be consequences for Turkey as a NATO ally if it is confirmed that the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is hosting Hamas leaders, Miller said: “I don’t want to get ahead of things here. We’ve just seen the reporting in the last few days that they have moved to Türkiye. But of course we will make clear to the government of Türkiye, as we have made clear to every country in the world, that there can be no more business as usual with Hamas.”
Israel’s Kan News reported the Hamas leaders’ relocation on Sunday evening, citing unnamed Israeli sources. According to the report, the move occurred “in recent days.”
Hamas denied the report in a statement on Monday, claiming that it was a rumor spread by Israel. A Turkish diplomatic source also denied the reports, according to Ynet, clarifying that members of the terrorist group occasionally visit the country.
However, Qatar confirmed on Tuesday that Hamas negotiators are not in Doha but said that the Palestinian terrorist group’s office there has not been permanently closed.
“The leaders of Hamas that are within the negotiating team are now not in Doha,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed bin Mohammed al-Ansari.
“The decision to … close down the office permanently, is a decision that you will hear about from us directly,” he added.
Israel Security Agency chief Ronen Bar traveled to Turkey over the weekend for talks with Ibrahim Kalin, director of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization, Walla! News reported.
Sources told the Hebrew-language news outlet that the pair discussed efforts to restart the Gaza ceasefire negotiations.
Earlier this month, al-Ansari claimed that media reports that the Gulf state had withdrawn from its mediation role and closed the terrorist group’s Doha offices were inaccurate.
“The State of Qatar notified the parties 10 days ago, during the last attempts to reach an agreement, that it would stall its efforts to mediate between Hamas and Israel if an agreement was not reached in that round,” said al-Ansari.
“Qatar will resume those efforts with its partners when the parties show their willingness and seriousness to end the brutal war and the ongoing suffering of civilians caused by catastrophic humanitarian conditions in the Strip,” he said. “Qatar will then be at the forefront of making every good effort to end the war and return the hostages and prisoners.”
Al-Ansari stressed that the reporting about “the Hamas office in Doha is inaccurate,” declaring that “the main goal of the office in Qatar is to be a channel of communication between the concerned parties.”
A senior U.S. official told Reuters on Nov. 8 that Hamas leaders “should no longer be welcome in the capitals of any American partner,” after the terror organization rejected repeated proposals to release the hostages.
“We made that clear to Qatar following Hamas’s rejection weeks ago of another hostage release proposal,” the official said, according to Reuters.
On Sunday, the Qatari-owned Al-Araby Al-Jadeed outlet cited a Hamas source as saying that the terror group has refused to provide information on the whereabouts and status of the hostages, in particular those with U.S. citizenship, as it has not been offered “compensation” by mediators.
According to the source, the Biden administration put “intense pressure” on Qatar and Egypt in the weeks leading up to the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election in an attempt to receive proofs of life.
However, Hamas said it refused the request because the Americans failed to provide “any serious indications about stopping the aggression or reaching an agreement to stop the war of extermination in the Strip.”
Meanwhile, the Turkish government led by Erdoğan has long harbored Hamas. In 2022, the terror group marked the 10th anniversary of the official establishment of its offices in Istanbul.
According to a 2021 report by The Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, Hamas’s headquarters in Istanbul has directed hundreds of terrorist attacks against Israelis and laundered millions of dollars.
“Turkey collaborates with terror organizations on both the ideological and operational levels. Terrorists working on Turkish soil establish infrastructures and plan terror attacks against Israel,” the report stated.
In April, Ankara invited Ismail Haniyeh, then the head of Hamas’s political bureau in Doha, to stay in the country, praising the top terrorist as a “leader of the Palestinian struggle.”
Haniyeh was killed in Tehran in July.
Erdoğan has become more hostile toward Israel and closer to Hamas since the terrorist group’s assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
In May, Erdoğan called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “vampire who feeds on blood,” urging Muslims to fight the Jewish state.
Two months later, Erdoğan told Newsweek that Palestinian terrorists from Gaza were “simply defending their homes, streets and homeland.”
Turkey, a NATO member, has also been blocking all partnerships or advancement of Israeli involvement with the global military alliance, Reuters reported in August, citing anonymous sources.
(JNS)
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