Paris, MINA – Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said Hamas has shown openness to discussing ways it would no longer “pose a threat to Israel,” though sensitive issues such as the group’s weapons were postponed because both sides were not ready for a comprehensive agreement.
In an interview published Sunday by The New York Times, Sheikh Mohammed who also serves as Qatar’s foreign minister said mediators chose to delay talks on Hamas’ arsenal after brokering the Gaza ceasefire deal that ended Israel’s military campaign.
“If we went for full-package negotiations, we wouldn’t have reached these results,” he said Friday in Paris after meeting French President Emmanuel Macron and several Arab and European foreign ministers to discuss Gaza’s postwar future.
“Hamas is actually open to having a discussion about how they won’t pose a threat to Israel,” he added, without providing details on the scope or timing of such talks.
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Hamas has historically rejected disarmament, instead calling for a Palestinian national dialogue to decide Gaza’s political and security future. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, has vowed that Hamas will be disarmed and Gaza demilitarized “either through diplomacy or by force.”
Sheikh Mohammed emphasized that one of the key challenges ahead is determining to whom Hamas would hand over its weapons, noting a significant difference between surrendering them to a reformed Palestinian Authority or to another body.
“The ceasefire agreement deferred critical issues such as the future of Hamas’s weapons and the post-war administration of Gaza to the next stage,” he said, adding that “Israel and Hamas were not ready for a comprehensive peace agreement. Therefore, our priority was to quickly complete the hostage exchange.”
The Qatari prime minister added that internal divisions persist within Hamas over its future direction, with some leaders opposing disarmament and others supporting a more pragmatic approach.
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“Hamas has lost one of its most important leverage points against Israel by releasing its last hostages,” Sheikh Mohammed said.
US President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that Israel and Hamas had agreed to the first phase of a plan he presented on Sept. 29, which includes a Gaza ceasefire, the release of Israeli captives in exchange for around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, and a gradual Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza.
The second phase of the plan envisions establishing a new governing mechanism in Gaza without Hamas, forming a multinational force, and ensuring the group’s disarmament.
Since October 2023, Israeli attacks have killed over 67,600 Palestinians in the enclave, most of them women and children leaving much of Gaza uninhabitable.[]
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