Is Hamas handing over any power?
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The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk. With Aviva Insurance. Donald Trump has said, I believe the ceasefire with Iran is over. I'm joined by Mark Weiss, who's Israel correspondent with the Irish Times. And Mark, we want to talk to you about this announcement this week from Hamas, saying it's going to dissolve its government and hand over power to a new Palestinian technocratic governing authority. But before we come to that conversation, what's your response to what we've just heard from Donald Trump at the NATO summit in Ankara?
I think the rule of... Good morning. I think the rule of... I think the rule of thumb with Donald Trump, as we've all learned, is that you shouldn't take what he says necessarily literally, but you should take him seriously.
What immediate regional impact did Trump's Ankara comments have on the ceasefire with Iran?
But without a doubt, these comments he made in the last few minutes in Ankara are very serious. It's an indication that the memorandum of understanding signed between the U.S., and Iran only three weeks ago may be over. He said, quote, I think it's over. The Iranians are sick people. I don't want to deal with them. Although he did add that his negotiating team will still remain in contact with the Iranian negotiators, it remains to be seen after those comments if the agreement is salvageable or if we are indeed... plunging into another possibility of military conflict across the region, which also may involve Israel again.
Right. Now, we saw overnight that the US military launched these powerful strikes against Iran. They said it was in response to commercial shipping being attacked in the Strait of Hormuz. Negotiators had 60 days from the signing of the memorandum, as you say, three weeks ago. Where do you believe this leaves us today then, Mark?
The feeling here in Israel from the very beginning was that this 60-day ceasefire wouldn't hold because the Iranians quite seriously are not serious in the negotiations. The feeling here was that the maximum that the Iranian could give during these negotiations on basically every issue, but particularly on the nuclear issue, which is the key issue, was far lower than the minimum that Washington would accept. And therefore there was very little chance that this memorandum of understanding would be the beginning of a genuine peace in the region and an end to the conflict. It appears to be that what we've heard from President Trump in the last few minutes would indicate that this is indeed the case, that these negotiations are going nowhere.
And we don't know if this will lead to a resumption of hostilities, but that remains a distinct possibility.
OK, and we're going to hear more about this at 10 o'clock when we cover in more detail what's been happening in Iran overnight and in the general area of the Middle East with those strikes on Bahrain. and Kuwait. But Mark, to come back to what I mentioned earlier on, this decision by Hamas to dissolve its government and hand over power, can you explain to us what has been happening?
Yes, well, just to remind your listeners that the ceasefire in Gaza, a separate front in the after the devastating war. Since then, basically, nothing has happened, faced with total deadlock. So the announcement by Hamas on Monday seemed to be, hopefully, possibly, a breakthrough of sorts. They said that they would disband the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip and hand it over to what we call the technical committee that was set up in October as part of Donald Trump's 20-point plan.
How does Mark Weiss assess the likelihood that the US–Iran memorandum will hold?
However, Israel rejected this move, saying it was basically spin by Hamas and that nothing can really move in Gaza as long as Hamas does not disarm. The Hamas announcement was only for civilian affairs, basically handing over all the problems of Gaza. infrastructure, sanitation, education, schools, etc., to the technical committee, which is sitting in Cairo at the moment and has not been allowed by Israel to enter the Gaza Strip. Israel says the first and critical step must be Hamas disarming and there's still no indication that Hamas is willing to do this.
But is this a risk that Hamas is taking or is it signalling that they are willing to participate in the next step in this peace process and perhaps shining a light on the fact they believe that Israel won't come along with them?
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