U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs Chief of Protocol Ibrahim Fakhroo shake hands. File Photo: AP.
The US has told Qatar that the presence of Hamas in Doha is no longer acceptable in the weeks since the Palestinian fighter group rejected the latest proposal to achieve a ceasefire and a hostage deal, a senior administration official told Reuters on Friday.
The tiny Gulf state Qatar, alongside the US and Egypt, has played a major role in rounds of so-far fruitless talks to broker a ceasefire to the year-long war in Gaza. The latest round of talks in mid-October failed to produce a deal, with Hamas rejecting a short-term ceasefire proposal.
"After rejecting repeated proposals to release hostages, its leaders should no longer be welcome in the capitals of any American partner. We made that clear to Qatar following Hamas's rejection weeks ago of another hostage release proposal," the senior official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Qatar then made the demand to Hamas leaders about 10 days ago, the official said. Washington has been in touch with Qatar over when to close the group's political office, and it told Doha that now was the time.
Three Hamas officials denied Qatar had told Hamas leaders they were no longer welcome in the country. The spokesperson for Qatar's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It was unclear if the Qataris provided a specific deadline to the Hamas leaders to leave the country.
President Joe Biden's administration has been preparing to make a final push to end Israeli assaults in Gaza and Lebanon. Republican Donald Trump's election this week as the next US president has significantly diminished Biden's leverage during his last weeks in office.
In previous rounds of ceasefire talks, disagreements over new demands that Israel introduced about future military presence in Gaza obstructed a deal, even after Hamas accepted a version of a ceasefire proposal that Biden unveiled in May.
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