Hamas says Tony Blair ‘not welcome’ and Palestinians can manage their own affairs
Al-Khamisa News Network - Gaza
Hamas said today that former British prime minister Tony Blair is “an unwelcome figure in the Palestinian situation,” and affirmed that it had not received any official proposal through mediators regarding a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
The remarks were made by Hossam Badran, a member of the movement’s political bureau, in statements published by the movement on its Telegram channel, following a report in the Hebrew newspaper Haaretz citing an Arab political source that the US administration had drawn up a plan to appoint Blair to head a temporary administration of the Strip.
Badran said: “Any plan linked to this unwelcome person is an ill omen for the Palestinian people.” He added: “Tony Blair is a negative figure who perhaps deserves to stand before international courts for the crimes he committed, especially his role in the war on Iraq (2003–2011).” He described him as “a brother of the devil,” saying that “his criminal and destructive role has been known for years, and he has brought no good to the Palestinian cause, nor to Arabs, nor to Muslims.”
Badran stressed that managing Palestinian affairs in Gaza or the West Bank is an internal Palestinian matter that should be decided by national consensus, saying: “The Palestinian people are capable of managing themselves; we have the Palestinian capabilities and expertise to run our affairs and our relations with the region and the world.”
He noted that Hamas had, since December 2023, made an internal decision that it did not wish to govern Gaza alone, and had raised the issue with other factions and with several countries with which it has good relations, even before the escalation of the war and the destruction inflicted on the Palestinian people.
Regarding the ceasefire proposal being discussed in the Israeli and American media, Badran affirmed: “We have not received any official proposal through mediators; everything being said so far we hear in the media.” He added: “This is not the first time the American side, in coordination with the occupation, has spoken about initiatives and ideas; they take time to be finalized and then presented to the movement through mediators.”
Earlier on Sunday, Hamas said in a statement that negotiations for a ceasefire have been suspended since the Israeli failed assassination attempt on movement leaders in Doha on September 9, and that it had not received any new proposals in this regard.
The statement came after US President Donald Trump on Tuesday presented a 21-point plan to leaders of Arab and Islamic countries aimed at ending Israel’s two-year war on Gaza, on the sidelines of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
