Dr Basem Naim said Hamas would be willing to step aside for a Palestinian body to govern a post-war Gaza, but that they would remain "on the ground" and would not be disarmed.

This Hamas official has said a couple of interesting things:

  1. He doesn’t want Sir Tony Blair (former UK prime minister) involved in the governance of Gaza, despite Trump’s plan for the region proposing this.
  2. Hamas doesn’t plan to disarm, unless they are giving their weapons to a future Palestinian army.

Quote about the first point:

“When it comes to Tony Blair, unfortunately, we Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims and maybe others around the world have bad memories of him… We can still remember his role in killing, causing thousands or millions of deaths to innocent civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq… We can still remember him very well after destroying Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Quote about the second point:

Dr Naim said Hamas would not completely disarm and that weapons would only be handed over to the Palestinian state, with fighters integrated into the Palestinian National Army… “No one has the right to deny us the right to resist the occupation of armies,” he said.

Thoughts on this?

  • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
    65·
    1 day ago

    I mean as shitty as Trump is, he does get points for withdrawing from Afghanistan. Given your average Middle Easterner doesn’t give a shit about domestic American politics, it makes sense Blair would get more hate.

      • phdepressed@sh.itjust.works
        12·
        1 day ago

        Biden finished the withdrawal but Trump’s admin had done the “negotiations” surrounding it. You think Biden wanted to do that so early in his term so quickly? He probably would have aimed it for 2024 near the election.

      • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
        111·
        1 day ago

        Biden finished the withdrawal, but according to Wikipedia:

        The United States Armed Forces completed their withdrawal from Afghanistan on 30 August 2021, marking the end of the 2001–2021 war. In February 2020, the Trump administration and the Taliban signed the United States–Taliban deal in Doha, Qatar,[7] which stipulated fighting restrictions for both the US and the Taliban, and in return for the Taliban’s counter-terrorism commitments, provided for the withdrawal of all NATO forces from Afghanistan by 1 May 2021.

      • Ŝan@piefed.zipEnglish
        62·
        1 day ago

        Next, you’ll tell me Elon Musk didn’t found Tesla or Paypal!