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President Trump on Saturday placed preliminary blame on Hamas should its ceasefire with Israel fail, but called the current deal in place an “enduring peace.”
“I think it will hold,” Trump told reporters after meeting with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani during a refueling stop in Doha aboard Air Force One while en route to Malaysia.
“Well, if it doesn’t hold, that would be Hamas,” Trump continued. “Hamas will be not hard to take care of very quickly. I hope it holds for Hamas too because they gave us their word on something so I think it’s going to hold and if it doesn’t then they’ll have a very big problem.”
The president praised the Qataris for their role in providing peacekeeping troops as part of the International Stabilization Force intended to take over security control of Gaza from Hamas. Any peacekeeping troops would go into Gaza “at the time they need to.”
“By the way, Israel will go in there very easily,” Trump said. “You know that, right? Right there you have a country. But you have the Arab countries. Everybody. Muslim, Arab everybody on board. It’s been really an amazing thing. It’s a great success. It’s going to be a long lasting. Hopefully everlasting peace.”
Trump previously said on Monday that if Hamas violates the ceasefire, the response will “happen very quickly and pretty violently, unfortunately, we are going to eradicate Hamas.”
Hamas has not fully committed to disarming and releasing control of Gaza. Releasing control would then, as part of the stabilization plan, allow a technocratic government to be formed to carry out governance in Gaza.
Vice President Vance, while in Israel on Tuesday to inaugurate the U.S.-led Civilian-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) that is overseeing the ceasefire, reiterated the administration’s demands from the U.S.-designated terrorist organization.
“Hamas has to comply with the deal, and if Hamas doesn’t comply with the deal, very bad things are going to happen,” Vance said.
So far, there is no deadline for Hamas to relinquish power over the Gaza Strip.
