Report: Qatar threatened to expel Meshal if he agreed to Cairo truce draft

[iandhr]

Source: Haaretz

Qatar pushed Hamas to renew hostilities with Israel by threatening to expel Khaled Meshal, the chief of Hamas' political bureau, if Hamas accepted the Egyptian proposal for a long-term cease-fire, the London-based pan-Arab daily Al Hayat reported Wednesday.

An unnamed source in the Palestinian delegation to Cairo said in the report that Qatar – which, like Turkey, is considered a Hamas ally – worked to undermine the talks by pressuring Hamas officials, including Meshal, not to advance negotiations.

“Qatar, financially and politically, diplomatically and through Al Jazeera, is supporting a terrorist group,” an Israeli official said late last month. “Instead of contributing to the development of the area, they are contributing to terror in the region.”

Meshal and other Hamas leaders left their longtime headquarters in Syria in 2012 because of the brutal civil war there, after which they were granted shelter by Qatar.

Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.611625

---

Adding another level of complexity. I guess the $10,000 question is (if the report is accurate) was Hamas ready to negotiate terms of a long term cease fire before this.

[leftynyc]

1. This really shouldn't surprise anyone at all

Why wouldn't someone comfortably holed up in Qatar give a shit what the Palestinians are going through as long as he can get his message spread far and wide.

[ballyhoo]

2. As Quatar is helping pay for IS, this shouldn't surprise

anyone.

[karynnj]

3. Read a variety of stories in Haaretz today - each one has its own reason for the collapse

The most likely was one that pointed out that there was a huge gap between what Israel was ready to offer and the minimum ANY Palestinians were willing to accept.

You have taken an extreme story with pretty sketchy sourcing. Note that ALL the sources are "unnamed" except in one place where it is Avidor Leiberman (Who makes Joe look like a good guy!) It ignores that in accounts for the last month, Meshal has asked for more than others in Hamas. Not to mention, Israel itself was not accepting the Cairo draft. It is entirely possible that Quatar did threaten to kick him out, but it seems that it is unlikely to be for the reason given. (In fact, he does a disservice to Netanyahu as well - suggesting he rejected the earlier proposal that Kerry and most of the EU worked on because he disliked Turkey and Quatar's roles. Shouldn't it be on the basis of what the draft included? )

Here is a more mainstream article, by their main diplomatic writer - http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.611469

(Here, not how weird he is about the US reaction - even though he was a leader in arguing that the US needed to stay out of this. This was after all the nth end of cease fire/Gaza rockets/Israeli attack. )