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?