FARAAN: Arab World Analyst Views the U.S. Role in the Gaza Ceasefire Negotiations as a Delay Tactic for Israeli Goals
“Abdel Bari Atwan,” a prominent Arab world analyst, wrote in an article for the electronic newspaper Rai al-Youm about the current round of ceasefire negotiations in Gaza, mediated by Egypt, Qatar, and the U.S. He stated that the previous rounds of negotiations over the past nine months have only served as a stalling tactic for the Israeli regime to achieve its objectives, including continuing the massacre and displacement of the Palestinian people from the Gaza Strip.
Atwan commented, “From the very beginning of the ceasefire negotiations in Gaza, it was clear to me that this is a trap designed to buy time and to spy on the resistance centers and their commanders, as well as to find secret ways to locate and free the captured Israeli soldiers. The Arab mediators in Cairo and Doha are being used as leverage and intimidation tools against the commanders of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, and other resistance groups.”
Atwan continued, “A ceasefire holds no importance for Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of the Israeli regime. He is not seeking an exit from the Gaza Strip. The freedom of Israeli captives is of no concern to him, and he has shed no tears for their deaths in Gaza, inflicted by the bullets of Israeli soldiers themselves. The Israeli Prime Minister has used every weapon and tool of ethnic cleansing against Gaza and its resistance groups, seeking to fully occupy the area after displacing its 2 million Palestinian residents and to control Gaza’s gas resources and strategic and touristic position.”
He further accused the U.S. of being a direct partner in the Israeli regime’s plans and not a neutral party in the ceasefire negotiations. He emphasized, “The U.S. is using these negotiations to achieve Israeli goals through Arab mediators and is not putting any real pressure on Netanyahu. All its threats regarding halting the supply of weapons, heavy bombs, and precision missiles to the Israeli regime are pure deception and trickery.”
Atwan also criticized the Israeli regime’s policy of using starvation as a weapon against the 2 million Palestinians in Gaza. He said, “UN experts have sounded the alarm, but we have not heard a word from the mediators in Doha and Cairo against this Israeli tactic. They have kept their doors open to Israeli and American delegations for the false and deceitful negotiations. We do not ask Egypt and Qatar to send their forces or fighters to Gaza to open its crossings and forcibly deliver aid; we ask them to end the ruse of negotiations.”
In conclusion, Atwan wrote, “The noble and intelligent leaders of the resistance in Gaza know their Zionist enemy well and trust not at all in the U.S. that is complicit with the Israeli regime. They have not yielded an inch from their demands and continue their resistance, inflicting heavy losses and damages on the enemy. For them, hunting Israeli Merkava tanks is much easier than hunting sparrows on the remaining trees in the Gaza Strip.”
