From: The Times of Israel February 14, 2025 Senior UAE official calls for Hamas to step down, as Arab pressure against terror group intensifies
The diplomatic adviser to UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed calls on Hamas to step down from power in Gaza, as the Arab push against the terror group begins to intensify.
Earlier this week, Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Hamas “should relinquish power if serving Palestinian interests demands it.”
But senior UAE official Anwar Gargash appears to go further in his statement posted on X
He says Aboul Gheit’s “rational call” is “appropriate, as the interests of the Palestinian people must come before the interests of the [Hamas] movement: 1. “Especially in light of the calls to displace the Palestinians from Gaza, 2. and the war that resulted from its decisions that destroyed the Gaza Strip 3. and tore its human and social fabric,”
While Washington’s Arab allies have long opposed Hamas, many of them were growing increasingly resigned to the notion that Hamas would remain in Gaza in some form after the war due to Israel’s refusal to advance a viable alternative to the terror group.
However, the rhetoric against Hamas has intensified in recent weeks following US President Donald Trump’s calls: 1. to permanently relocate all of Gaza’s population outside of the Strip 2. and for Washington to take over the enclave.
Trump’s plan has been widely rejected by the Arab world, but the administration is pushing those allies to advance an alternative vision rather than just rejecting the one proposed by the president.
