Hamas leaders are reportedly seeking to amend some clauses of Donald Trump's Gaza peace plan, including those regarding its disarmament and expulsion from the enclave.
AFP reported on Wednesday that group leaders told officials from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey that they needed "two or three days at most" to answer to Trump's proposal.
Another report detailed that the countries, which are closest to the militant group, considered terrorist by the U.S., are urging it to accept the deal despite being infuriated by last-minute changes made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Both Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani and Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad advised them to accept what they described as the best deal the former could get on the table, adding that it won't get much better.
Al-Thani added that he believed Trump was committed to ending the war, what could be a strong guarantee from Hamas. He then told Al-Jazeera that he hoped "everyone looks at the plan constructively and seizes the chance to end the war."
"We and Egypt explained to Hamas during yesterday's meeting that our main goal is stopping the war. Trump's plan achieves the main goal of ending the war, though some issues in it need clarification and negotiation," he added.
The statement came even as the same outlet noted that Arab officials were infuriated because the deal presented by Trump and Netanyahu is significantly different to the one the U.S. and a group of Arab and Muslim countries had previously agreed on as a result of Netanyahu's changes.
Axios went on to detail that among the changes are the conditions and timetable for Israel's withdrawal from the enclave, which now ties it to the progress of Hamas' disarming. Moreover, even if all conditions are met, Israeli forces will remain within a security perimeter inside Gaza until it is "properly secure from any resurgent terror threat," a criteria that is not clear and could leave forces there indefinitely.
Qatari officials even tried to onvince the Trump administration not to release the plan due to the objections. Trump did it anyway, and even though a group of eight countries issued a statement welcoming the plan, they didn't express their full support.
Special envoy Steve Witkoff, however, expressed optimism about the plan's chances of succeeding. "We have a lot of buy-in. Do we have some details to work out? Yes. But, you know President Trump... everyone is going to be pushed by him," he told Fox News.
Originally published on Latin Times
