Trump Must Abandon the Disastrous Ceasefire Deal with Hamas

by Con Coughlin • February 23, 2025 at 5:00 am

Ever since Hamas launched its murderous assault on Israel in October 2023, Hamas leaders, together with their supporters in Qatar and Iran, have calculated that any outcome from the Gaza conflict that enables Hamas to remain in control of the enclave counts as a victory.
This agenda for its long-term-client, Hamas, explains why Qatar, which claimed to be a neutral player during the ceasefire negotiations in Doha, has been so keen to oversee a deal that favours Hamas at the expense of Israel's long-term security. This is the same country, after all, that helped to facilitate the deal with the first Trump administration that resulted in the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan.
If Trump and Netanyahu are really serious about achieving lasting peace in Gaza, they must abandon the disastrous ceasefire deal -- and especially the well-intended but painfully out-of-his-depth U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, who has mindlessly promoted it.
Regrettably, Witkoff is on his way to wrecking Trump's election triumph by equally disastrous negotiations in Ukraine, where the US is punishing the victim, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and rewarding the aggressor, Russian President Vladimir Putin. If Trump succeeds in torpedoing his month-old presidency, the blame goes to Witkoff.

If Trump and Netanyahu are really serious about achieving lasting peace in Gaza, they must abandon the disastrous ceasefire deal -- and especially the well-intended but painfully out-of-his-depth U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, who has mindlessly promoted it. Pictured: Trump meets with Netanyahu in the White House in Washington, DC, on February 4, 2025. (Photo by Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

Nothing better illustrates the dire shortcomings of the flawed ceasefire deal agreed between Israel and Iran-backed Hamas than the terrorist organisation's despicable mistreatment of the Israeli hostages it has so far agreed to set free.

By far the most grotesque exhibition of Hamas's contempt for the hostages was their handling of the handover of four Israelis murdered as a result of the October 7, 2023 attacks. Not only was the handover ceremony staged as a propaganda rally for Hamas, it later transpired that one of the slain hostage bodies was not that of Shiri Bibas, as had been agreed in the ceasefire deal. In addition, the Israeli authorities revealed that Bibas's two sons, Ariel (four years old at the time of his abduction) and Kfir (9 months old), whose bodies were returned at the same time, had been murdered by Hamas, and not killed in Israeli airstrikes as the terrorist group had claimed.

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Iran: To Talk or Not to Talk, That is the Question

by Amir Taheri • February 23, 2025 at 4:00 am

The talk party suggests that Iran should offer to freeze its nuclear program for two to three years, at the end of which it would decide which direction it should take.
Those who market the above analysis assume that the US, and for that matter Israel, will stand by and see how the Iranian adversary bounces back from the edge of doom.
Khamenei, who controls law and order forces, has put them on partial alert to nip any revolt in the bud. This is accompanied by a massive crackdown against potential dissidents, especially in Tehran, with reports of arbitrary arrests.
All this does mean that the "Supreme Guide" isn't prepared to perform another of his "heroic flexibilities" by accepting a deal with the "Great Satan" to sit out Trump's four-year tenure, a game that led seven consecutive US presidents up the garden path, allowing the Islamic Republic of Iran to approach its golden jubilee.

Iran's "Supreme Leader" Ali Khamenei, who controls law and order forces, has put them on partial alert to nip any revolt in the bud. This is accompanied by a massive crackdown against potential dissidents, especially in Tehran, with reports of arbitrary arrests. Pictured: Khamenei meets with President Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran on August 27, 2024. (Image source: khamenei.ir)

With the Trump administration sending conflicting signals about its intentions on dealing with Iran, the Iranian leadership is once again divided on how to respond.

One faction is trying to paint a grim picture in which the US will give Israel enough support to inflict a heavy defeat on Iran to complete the defeats already inflicted on Tehran's allies in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. Such a humiliation will encourage the regime's opponents both inside and outside the country to take to the streets and seize power while a demoralized Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps will do what it did in Syria, that is to say, run for economic crisis cover to save its skin.

The same faction argues that the current economic crisis has sapped the will and energy of the regime's dwindling support base, making regime change a real possibility for the first time.

So, how to negotiate such a dangerous bend of the road?

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