US tells Qatar to kick Hamas out of the country after terror group rejects hostage deal
The US demanded Qatar shutter Hamas’ political office in Doha after the terror group’s latest rejection of a deal that would have freed the Israeli hostages, and the Gulf state has agreed, an official said Friday.
“After rejecting repeated proposals to release hostages, its leaders should no longer be welcome in the capitals of any American partner,” a senior Harris-Biden administration official said, according to Reuters.
“We made that clear to Qatar following Hamas’s rejection weeks ago of another hostage release proposal,” the official added.
The oil-rich Gulf state has been hosting the Palestinian terror group’s political leaders since 2012 — and broke the news to them about 10 days ago that they are no longer welcome in Doha, the US official said.
Qatar, a major US-ally in the region, has been the site of cease-fire and hostage negotiations between Hamas, the US and Egypt since the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel — during which Hamas slaughtered 1,200 people and kidnapped 250 others, including several Americans.
The demand to boot Hamas out of Qatar was made after mid-October negotiations failed to result in a deal between Israel and Hamas that would free hostages.
During the latest round of talks, Hamas reportedly rejected a deal that would have led to a short-term cease-fire, such as the one brokered in November 2023 — which halted fighting for seven days and resulted in about 70 Hamas-held hostages being freed.
Washington and Doha have been in close contact over when the appropriate time would be to shut down Hamas’ base of political operations, according to Reuters.
In the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared that he had been “making it clear in all of my conversations” with Arab leaders that there could be “no more business as usual with Hamas.”
The Qataris reportedly responded by informing the top US diplomat that they were open to reconsidering Hamas’ presence in the country.
Some US lawmakers have fumed over the “hospitality” shown to Hamas by the Qatari government.
The top Republicans on the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees argued Friday that it also is long past time for the Harris-Biden administration to compel Qatar to freeze Hamas’ assets in the country and turn over the terror group’s top leaders living in Doha.
Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Jim Risch (R-Idaho) demanded that the Harris-Biden administration “act quickly against Hamas’ remaining leadership, so that the organization is destroyed and defeated,” in a letter sent to Blinken and Attorney General Merrick Garland.
“Hamas’ Doha-based leaders have exploited this arrangement,” Wicker and Risch said of allowing Hamas leaders to negotiate out of the tiny Gulf state “and used the relative freedom that Qatar has afforded them to oppose ceasefire negotiations in international media, host Iranian officials at Hamas’ Doha headquarters, and travel abroad.”
The White House and the State Department did not respond to The Post’s requests for comment Friday.
