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Trump Envoy Gets Early Start on Ceasefire Diplomacy


Wednesday, 04 December 2024 04:55, PM EST

Read more at https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/steve-witkoff-middle-east-qatar/2024/12/04/id/1190377/

Donald Trump’s incoming Middle East envoy traveled to Qatar and Israel to kick-start the President-elect’s diplomatic push to reach a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal before he takes office on Jan 20, a source briefed on the talks told Reuters.

Steve Witkoff, the incoming envoy, met separately in late November with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Qatar’s prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, the source said. The meetings signal that the Gulf state of Qatar has resumed its role as a key mediator after suspending its role last month, the source said.

The Gulf country had worked alongside the U.S. and Egypt for months on fruitless indirect talks that have not achieved a lasting ceasefire between Israel and militant group Hamas in Gaza or the release of dozens of Israeli hostages held in the enclave. The source added that Hamas negotiators would likely return to the Qatari capital Doha to facilitate a fresh round of talks “soon.”

A U.S. official confirmed that Trump’s team has been in touch with Middle East officials.

“They are supportive of a Gaza ceasefire deal,” the official told Reuters.

Trump’s transition team and representatives for Witkoff did not immediately respond to a request for comment the meetings. The White House National Security Council did not immediately respond to questions on whether they were aware of Witkoff’s trips in recent weeks to Qatar and Israel.

Trump said on Monday there would be “hell to pay” in the Middle East if hostages held in the Gaza Strip were not released before his Jan. 20 inauguration

Witkoff, a real estate investor and Trump campaign donor with business ties to Qatar and other Gulf states, but no prior diplomatic experience, met Sheikh Mohammed, who also serves as foreign minister, in Doha on Nov 22.

“Both agreed a Gaza ceasefire is needed before Trump’s inauguration so that once the Trump administration takes office it can move onto other issues, like stabilizing Gaza and the region,” said the source, who had been briefed on meetings between Witkoff, Qatar and Israel and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Qatar’s foreign ministry did not respond to Reuters’ request for confirmation or comment.

Witkoff met Netanyahu in Israel the next day. The Israeli prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

Witkoff met families of Israeli hostages, an Israeli official told Reuters.

He “spoke with them about Team Trump’s efforts to try and broker the deal before inauguration,” the official said.

Sheik Mohammed traveled to Vienna on Nov 24 to meet the director of Israel’s Mossad spy agency David Barnea, who has led Israel’s talks with Qatar over the past 14 months.

“There are plans for a subsequent round of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas to take place potentially in Doha soon, but no specific date has been set,” the source said.

“Hamas’ negotiating team are likely to return to Doha to facilitate such talks.”

Qatar had been a key mediator of the indirect talks between Israel and Hamas until it announced last month it was suspending its role until they the two parties show “willingness and seriousness” to resume talks.

© 2024 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.

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Israeli Officials Puzzled by Biden’s Optimism on Cease-Fire Deal


By Jewish News Syndicate Staff    |   Tuesday, 27 February 2024 07:43 AM EST

Senior Israeli officials said on Tuesday that they were unaware of any basis for U.S. President Joe Biden’s remarks on Monday that a hostage-for-cease-fire agreement in Gaza is imminent. During an unannounced visit to Van Leeuwen Ice Cream in Manhattan, near Rockefeller Plaza, Biden was asked about when a cease-fire in Gaza might start.

“I hope by the end of the weekend,” Biden said, per the pool report.

“My national security adviser tells me that we’re close. We’re close. We’re not done yet,” Biden said. “My hope is by next Monday, we’ll have a cease-fire.”

Ynet quoted the senior Israeli officials as saying on Tuesday morning that they do not understand “what the American president’s optimism is based on.”

The Hamas terrorist group also weighed in on Biden’s comments, with a source telling Reuters that the statement was premature and did not align with the situation on the ground. “There are still big gaps that need to be bridged before there is a cease-fire,” he said.

A spokesman for the Qatari Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that there has been no breakthrough in the negotiations that can be announced, while expressing that Doha is “optimistic” that a deal can be reached, even though Hamas and Israel don’t agree on any of the main issues. He added that Qatar has no intention of responding to Biden’s comments.

Reuters reported on Tuesday morning on the details of the proposal discussed at the Paris summit last weekend and submitted to Hamas for review. Citing a senior official privy to the details of the talks, the news agency reported that the proposal focuses on the first phase of the agreement, would last for 40 days and include the release of 10 Palestinian security prisoners for every Israeli hostage, which is seven more Palestinian terrorists freed per Israeli captive compared to the previous deal last November — 40 Israeli hostages in total for 400 Palestinian security prisoners in the first stage. Further, the Israeli captives include women, abductees aged 19 and under, adults aged 50 and over and sick captives.

Both sides will cease fire for 40 days and the IDF patrol flights over Gaza will stop for 8 hours a day. After the first phase, the IDF will gradually begin to withdraw its forces from dense areas of the Strip. Additionally, displaced Palestinians will gradually be allowed to return to the northern Gaza Strip, except for men of enlistment age for Hamas.

With regard to humanitarian aid, the proposal reportedly includes a commitment to bring in 500 aid trucks every day and to supply 200,000 tents and 60,000 trailers. Also, Gazans will be allowed to rehabilitate bakeries and hospitals.

According to The New York Times, the 40 captives to be released in the first phase in exchange for 15 Palestinian prisoners convicted of terror offenses would include five IDF soldiers and 35 civilians, including seven women who Israel believes should have been freed in the November deal. To release the seven women, Israel offered to release 21 Palestinian prisoners under the previous deal.Republished with permission from Jewish News Syndicate.

Read more: Israeli Officials Puzzled by Biden’s Optimism on Cease-Fire Deal | Newsmax.com

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Hamas Releases 2 US Hostages ‘for Humanitarian Reasons’


Friday, 20 October 2023 01:46 PM EDT

Read more at https://www.newsmax.com/us/hamas-hostages-qatar/2023/10/20/id/1139066/

The Islamist group Hamas said Friday it had released two U.S. hostages — woman and her daughter — for what it called “humanitarian reasons” following Qatari mediation efforts.

Hamas armed wing spokesman Abu Ubaida issued a statement announcing the release, the first since gunmen from the Islamist militant group burst into Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,400 people, mainly civilians, and taking around 200 hostages. Israel’s Channel 13 News said Israel had confirmed the release of two hostages but gave no further details.

Israel leveled a northern Gaza district earlier Friday after giving families a half-hour warning to escape and hit an Orthodox Christian church where others had been sheltering. Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, which rules Gaza, relentlessly pounding the strip with air strikes, putting the enclave’s 2.3 million people under a total siege and banning shipments of food, fuel and medical supplies.

The secretary-general of the United Nations visited the crossing between the besieged Gaza Strip and Egypt, and said humanitarian aid must be allowed across as soon as possible. At least 4,137 (???????) Palestinians have been killed, including hundreds of children (?????), and 13,000 (?????) wounded in Gaza, the Palestinian health ministry said. The U.N. says more than a million have been made homeless.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Friday that achieving Israel’s objectives would not be quick or easy.

“We will topple the Hamas organization. We will destroy its military and governing infrastructure. It’s a phase that will not be easy. It will have a price,” he told a parliamentary committee.

He added that the subsequent phase would be more drawn out, but was aimed at achieving “a completely different security situation” with no threat to Israel from Gaza. “It’s not a day, it’s not a week, and unfortunately it’s not a month,” he said.

CHURCH HIT

The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the main Palestinian Christian denomination, said that overnight Israeli forces had struck the Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza City, where hundreds of Christians and Muslims had sought sanctuary. It said targeting churches that were used as shelters for people fleeing bombing was “a war crime that cannot be ignored.”

Video from the scene showed a wounded boy being carried from rubble at night. A civil defense worker said two people on upper floors had survived; those on lower floors had been killed and their bodies were still in the rubble.

“They felt they would be safe here. They came from under the bombardment and the destruction, and they said they would be safe here but destruction chased them,” a man cried out.

Gaza’s Hamas-run government media office said 18 Christian Palestinians had been killed, while the health ministry later gave a toll of 16. The Israeli military said part of the church was damaged in a strike by fighter jets on a nearby Hamas command center involved in launching rockets and mortars towards Israel, and that it was reviewing the incident.

“The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) can unequivocally state that the church was not the target of the strike,” it said.

‘EVERYTHING I DREAMT OF’ DESTROYED

Israel has already told all civilians to evacuate the northern half of the Gaza Strip, which includes Gaza City. Many people have yet to leave saying they fear losing everything and have nowhere safe to go with southern areas also under attack.

In Zahra, a northern Gaza town, residents said their entire district of some 25 apartment buildings was razed.

They received Israeli warning messages on their mobile phones at breakfast, followed 10 minutes later by a small drone strike. After another 20 minutes, F-16 warplanes brought the buildings down in huge explosions and clouds of dust.

“Everything I ever dreamt of and thought that I have achieved was gone. In that apartment was my dream, my memories with my children, and my wife, was the smell of safety and love,” Ali, a resident of the district, told Reuters by phone.

The United Nations humanitarian affairs office said more than 140,000(?????) homes – nearly a third of all homes in Gaza – have been damaged, with nearly 13,000(?????) completely destroyed.

The south of the enclave has also been regularly hit. Rescue workers were combing through the wreckage of a house in the main southern city, Khan Younis, for survivors. One carried the limp body of a child.

“We don’t want to receive aid, we want the destruction and the killing of children in their sleep to stop. We are tired,” said neighbor Joumana Khreis.

AID STILL HELD UP

International attention has focused on getting aid to Gaza through the one access point not controlled by Israel, the Rafah crossing to Egypt. U.S. President Joe Biden, who visited Israel on Wednesday, emerged with a promise from Israel to allow limited shipments from Egypt provided the aid is monitored to prevent any reaching Hamas.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres toured the checkpoint on Egypt’s side and called for a meaningful number of trucks to enter Gaza every day and checks to be quick and pragmatic.

“We are actively engaging with all parties to make sure conditions for delivering aid are lifted,” he said.

Western leaders have so far mostly offered support to Israel’s campaign against Hamas, although there is mounting unease about the plight of civilians in Gaza. Many Muslim states, however, have called for an immediate ceasefire, and protests demanding an end to the bombardment were held in cities across the Islamic world on Friday.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan called on Israel to end “its operations amounting to genocide.”

Biden formally asked Congress on Friday for billions of dollars in U.S. military aid for Israel. But, in a televised speech the previous day, he also said: “We can’t ignore the humanity of innocent Palestinians who only want to live in peace and have opportunity.”

The conflict is spreading to two other fronts.

Clashes at the border between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement have been the deadliest since a full-blown war in 2006, with Israel ordering the evacuation of more than 20,000 residents from the border town of Kiryat Shmona on Friday.

The West Bank, where Palestinians have limited self-rule under Israeli military occupation, has experienced the deadliest clashes since the second intifada uprising ended in 2005.

© 2023 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.

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US, Qatar Agree to Keep Iran From $6 Billion


By Eric Mack    |   Thursday, 12 October 2023 02:09 PM EDT

Read more at https://www.newsmax.com/world/globaltalk/qatar-billion-prisoner-swap/2023/10/12/id/1138069/

The U.S. reportedly already has a “quiet understanding” with Qatar to hold the $6 billion in sanctioned Iranian oil money. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo told House Democrats about this “quiet agreement” and the $6 billion “isn’t going anywhere anytime so on,” Punchbowl News first reported Thursday. Three sources confirmed the report to The Washington Post.

Iran’s Nournews had said Thursday that Tehran had full access to its funds that were transferred to Qatari banks last month under a prisoner swap deal with the U.S., despite some reports that Washington and Doha have agreed to stop Iran from tapping the $6 billion.

“There has been no change in Iran’s access to its foreign funds in Qatari banks, and the existing agreement remains in effect,” said the news website, affiliated with Iran’s top security body.

But that is now shelved under pressure from American lawmakers, according to the Post.

“It is perplexing why the Biden administration refuses to crack down on Iran and issue a formal decision to freeze the $6 billion ransom payment,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., wrote in a statement provided to Newsmax. “Instead, the administration is selectively leaking parts of their backdoor deal with Qatar to the media.

“We need to ensure the Biden administration will not release another dollar to Iran — even when the media attention on Israel dissipates. We must send the message that America does not reward terrorism or the arbitrary detention of our citizens abroad.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will arrive in Qatar on Friday to discuss with its prime minister developments in the Israel-Hamas conflict, ways to de-escalate it and the protection of civilians, the Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson said.

“The senators in question and the U.S. government are all acutely aware that they can NOT renege on the agreement,” Iran sources told the Post in a statement.

“The money rightfully belongs to the people of Iran, earmarked for the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to facilitate the acquisition of all essential and non-sanctioned requisites for the Iranians.”

The prisoner swap has already been completely, so refusing Iran’s money now will have a deleterious effect on the Biden administration’s hopes for diplomatic reset with Iran.

“If this step is taken, that status quo falls apart — and it will have a very detrimental effect on the internal discussions in Iran, within the regime,” Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft’s Trita Parsi told the Post. “If there is no prospect of a deal with the U.S., it will likely tilt Iran toward building a bomb — and that would be an extremely dangerous situation.”

Eric Mack ✉

Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.

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Pentagon Trained “Rebel” Group in Syria Pledges Allegiance to ISIS-aligned Al-Nusra


waving flagPosted By Kurt Nimmo | Infowars.com On August 16, 2015

Article printed from Infowars: http://www.infowars.com

URL to article: http://www.infowars.com/pentagon-trained-rebel-group-in-syria-pledges-allegiance-to-isis-aligned-al-nusra

Pentagon Trained “Rebel” Group in Syria Pledges Allegiance to ISIS-aligned Al-Nusra

Division 30, also known as the New Syrian Forces, was created by the United States as part of a propaganda campaign to counter the fact virtually all of the mercenaries in Syria have gone over to the Islamic State.

On May 8 Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced 90 mercenaries had begun training with the Pentagon and would be trained at camps in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan. “These trainees are recruited, they’re vetted, and only then are they put into training,” Carter said. In early July two-thirds of the Division 30 mercenaries, including the groups’s commander Nadim al-Hassan, were captured in Syria north of Aleppo by Jabhat al-Nusra fighters.

Jabhat al-Nusra is described by the corporate media as an al-Qaeda affiliate sworn to take down the Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. In June, 2014, the group reportedly pledged allegiance to ISIS at Albu Kamal on the Syria-Iraq border.Picture5

The leader of al-Nusra, Abu Mussab al-Makdessi, said the ISIS fighters “remain our brothers” and the “ideological bond between us is stronger than anything. We are ready to fight by their side … our blood is their blood.”

Late Saturday it was reported seven members of Division 30 were released by al-Nusra and it was hoped Nadim al-Hassan would be released soon.

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The Division 30 statement described al-Nusra as “brothers” and went on to declare the Pentagon trained group is on the “same page with all holy warriors in Syria.”

Division 30 represented the last “vetted” non-jihadi mercenary group fighting to overthrow al-Assad in Syria. In November the Syrian Revolutionary Front handed over bases and weapons to Jabhat al-Nusra in the Idlib province.

“The Free Syrian Army and the Syrian National Council, the vaunted bulwarks of the moderate opposition, only really exist in hotel lobbies and the minds of Western diplomats,” Ben Reynolds wrote in November. “There is simply no real separation between ‘moderate’ rebel groups and hardline Salafists allied with al-Qaeda.”

“Nowhere in rebel-controlled Syria is there a secular fighting force to speak of,” The New York Times reported in April 2013.

The fate suffered by Division 30 demonstrates that the United States is not sincerely interested in forming a viable, non-jihadi paramilitary group in Syria. Division 30 was in effect a propaganda tool used to give the impression there are secular rebels in Syria dedicated to overthrowing al-Assad.

The game plan now calls for the establishment of a no-fly zone in northern Syria under the ruse of protecting civilians. On August 11 the prime minister of Turkey, Ahmet Davutoglu, called for a no-fly zone that will prevent Syria from conducting air raids against ISIS and other assorted radical Salafist groups. Russia and Iran have vowed to oppose the establishment of a no-fly zone over sovereign Syrian territory. Instead of a no-fly zone the United States and Turkey have agreed to establish a de facto “safe zone” along the Turkey-Syria border.What did you say 06.jpg

The Washington Post reported on July 26:

The agreement includes a plan to drive the Islamic State out of a 68-mile-long area west of the Euphrates River and reaching into the province of Aleppo that would then come under the control of the Syrian opposition. If fully implemented, it would also bring American planes in regular, close proximity to bases, aircraft and air defenses operated by the Syrian government, and directly benefit opposition rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.What did you say 04.jpg

As previously noted, there are virtually no moderate mercenary groups inside Syria.

The agreement will establish a safe haven for jihadist groups that represent the only viable force — short of direct U.S. military involvement and boots on the ground — capable of turning Syria into the next Libya, a failed state that does not challenge or resist the hegemony of the United States and Israel in the Middle East. Picture5

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Money trail reveals Islamist influence in American policy


Obamacare

Read more at http://allenbwest.com/2014/09/money-trail-reveals-islamist-influence-american-policy/#kRer1qj4zbmFcJxo.99

Written by Allen West on September 8, 2014

money_trailI’m often asked how it is and why it is that Islamists have such a strong influence on American policy. The answer to that question is simple: follow the money. Here’s a perfect example.

As reported by the Algemeiner, “Questions are emerging over possible conflicts-of-interest after The New York Times highlighted Qatari funding for U.S. think tanks, including the Brookings Institute, employer of former U.S. envoy Martin Indyk, who was directly involved in recent negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.“Qatar, the small but wealthy Middle East nation, agreed last year to make a $14.8 million, four-year donation to Brookings, which has helped fund a Brookings affiliate in Qatar and a project on United States relations with the Islamic world,” according to The Imperial Islamic President ObamaTimes.”

If you follow the money on the campuses of many U.S .colleges and universities, you’ll find many Middle Eastern studies programs are benefactors of Saudi Arabia funding — as well as many of the mosques built in America.

But what is most disturbing about Qatar is that it is the major funding source for the Islamic terrorist group Hamas. As a matter of fact, the leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, resides not in Gaza but in Qatar. Hamas chief Meshaal said on Aug 21, that “Our relationship with Qatar is not new… We appreciate Qatar’s stand, the brave political stand of its government and people,” after a meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. “Qatar’s support is not just for Hamas movement, the country extends its support to all the Palestinian people,” Meshaal said, according to local media.

And to whom did President Barack Hussein Obama release the five senior Taliban unlawful enemy combatants? Yes, to the Qataris. Let us not forget the infamous statement by Nancy Pelosi that “Hamas is a humanitarian organization” because that is what the Qataris told her. During the recent conflagration between Israel and Hamas, it was U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry who sat with Qatar and Turkey — instead of Egypt — two Islamist supporting states, to “secure” a ceasefire on behalf of Hamas. And it was a ceasefire agreement, which Hamas broke, that resulted in Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu chiding Obama to “never second guess me again.”

We shared with you here that the recent bombings in Libya by the UAE and Egypt came as Qatar provides more support to Islamic terrorists in that neighboring country — as Qatar colludes with the Muslim Brotherhood. So why with all this hard evidence are the Qataris allowed to influence an American think tank? Most disturbing, according to a report in the UK-based Telegraph, “both Qatar and Kuwait were singled out for openly, and even avidly, aiding fundraising efforts for ISIS terrorists who are currently engaged in fierce clashes with the Syrian army alongside Israel on the Golan Heights.” We’ve known Qatar is supporting ISIS for quite sometime. I suppose if Obama were to read his daily intel briefs, he’d know as well.

If it were up to me, I would cease all diplomatic relations with Qatar and expel their representatives from the U.S. I would shut down Al Uided AB outside of Doha. And I would ban all Qatar Airlines flights from entering the U.S. Any Qatari assets in the U.S. would be frozen — heck, I’d use those assets for debt reduction.

It will be interesting to see if this is a part of the Obama strategy on defeating ISIS he’ll announce on Wednesday, I know, never gonna happen under this Obama Islamist sympathetic administration. We can hope, but nothing will change.

Algemeiner says “in July, then-Israeli President Shimon Peres told United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who was visiting the region, that Israel would not stand by while Qatar continued to finance Hamas militants. In his last full day in office, Peres, a historically dovish leader, struck a defiant tone in a statement delivered to the media after meeting Ban at the President’s Residence, in Jerusalem. “Qatar does not have the right to send money for rockets and tunnels which are fired at innocent civilians,” Peres said. “Their funding of terror the must stop.”

obamamoney1However, I don’t believe the UN Secretary-General would give any heed to what Peres stated since Newsweek‘s Benny Avni reported that the Qatari government also paid for the UN Secretary-General’s flight through the Middle East at the time — where his first stop was Doha, where he denounced Israel’s Operation Protective Edge.

Should the Brookings Institute — a left-leaning policy think tank — return the millions of dollars it has received from Qatar? Yes, if not, it should be viewed as an agent of Hamas operating here in the United States. It is unconscionable that such a blatant conflict of interest would be allowed to occur.

Even more disconcerting, we have willingly allowed our enemies to fund their vile terrorist aims right here in America — and the frontline advocacy group for the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas in America is the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) who has a posh office building right near Capitol Hill.

This sucks.

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