Dimensions of the new round of Gaza ceasefire negotiations in Doha

Mehr News Agency, International Group: A new phase of the Gaza ceasefire negotiations started on Sunday, in Doha, the capital of Qatar, with the presence of the Prime Minister of this country, David Barnia, the head of the Mossad intelligence agency, William Burns, the head of the CIA, and Hassan Mahmoud Rashad, the head of the Egyptian intelligence agency. According to reports, although Hamas has also been asked to participate in these talks, the senior officials of this movement have not yet responded to this invitation.

Just a few days before the aforementioned meeting, Anthony Blinken, the Secretary of State of the United States of America , visited the region for the 11th time since the beginning of the Gaza war, and in a joint press conference with senior Qatari officials, he emphasized the need to start such negotiations. The goal of the new round of consultations is the release of prisoners and the temporary withdrawal of the Zionist regime from Gaza, so that in this way the scope of the ceasefire can be extended to other fronts and finally the cessation of the current war can be achieved.

The issue of the release of Zionist prisoners has been raised by the United States when earlier Osama Hamdan, from The senior leaders of the Hamas movement said in an interview with Al-Mayadeen network that the Zionist prisoners will return only if the aggression stops and the Zionist forces completely withdraw from Gaza.

At the same time, Egypt also presented a proposal aimed at an initial two-day ceasefire, based on which four Zionist prisoners would be exchanged for a number of Palestinian prisoners, and then the terms of the ceasefire be evaluated permanently; A proposal that has not yet had a reaction from the parties involved in the war. The main question is, after a period of hiatus, what factors have caused mediators such as Qatar and Egypt to start taking measures to de-escalate the scope of the Gaza war with the strong support of the United States?

The assassination of Yahya Senwar; An important milestone

After the Zionist regime, the senior leaders of Hezbollah in Lebanon, as well as Ismail Hanieh and Yahya Senwar, many analysts believed that now the Zionist regime can announce that it has achieved its goals of assassinating resistance leaders in Palestine and Lebanon. think about stopping the war; An idea that seems to have no place in the mind of Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of the Zionist regime.

Following the assassination of Senwar by the Zionist regime, this perception is especially strengthened for the United States of America. It turned out that now there is no serious obstacle in the path of negotiations with Hamas and we can expect more flexibility in negotiations from this movement. Khalid Meshaal, the former head of the Hamas political office, Musa Abu Marzouq, one of the senior members of this movement, and Khalil Al-Hiya The head of Arab and Islamic relations of Hamas is among the political figures present in Doha, with whom the Qatari government is expected to be able to form constructive negotiations.

Accelerating negotiations on the eve of the American elections

About two weeks until the United States presidential election, Joe Biden and his successor , Kamala Harris, need to register an achievement in order to cover up their inability to control the one-year war in Gaza and increase their chances in the competition with Trump. give.

Democrats believe that if it wasn’t for their diplomacy, the current situation in the region would have been worse than now, and for example, the world is currently witnessing a full-scale war between Iran and the Zionist regime. was What is important is the failure of Washington under the leadership of Biden both in restraining the Zionist regime and preventing the expansion of the scope of the war and in gaining Netanyahu’s satisfaction.

The upcoming American elections have changed the coordinates of the war situation; A Harris victory is likely to push Netanyahu toward ending the war, while a Republican victory, which is Prime Minister Tel is considered Aviv, it may make the ceasefire negotiations even more difficult now.

Outlook for the current round of negotiations

What Hamas expects from the negotiations can be summarized in five main axes: a permanent ceasefire, a prisoner exchange agreement, facilitating the arrival of humanitarian aid, and the return of Palestinian refugees to their homes. and negotiations on lifting the blockade of Gaza. In order to reach the conclusion of the negotiations before or after the American elections, the main prerequisite is the flexibility of the representatives of the Zionist regime in the negotiations.

Hodi Yousefi; An expert on West Asian issues