The US Conducted Secret Talks with Hamas

An American website reported that during the last six months, Washington, DC conducted secret negotiations with Hamas. In the talks, Hamas provided the Americans with guarantees that would permit them to support the new government.

Jun 05, 2014, 11:39AM | Rachel Avraham

Did the US have secret talks with Hamas? Photo Credit: AP

Senior level diplomats stated that during the last six months the US conducted secret talks with Hamas to discuss their role in the future Palestinian unity government, the Buzzfeed website reported today.

According to the sources close to the talks, it was a meeting between American mediators and the Hamas leadership, which took place outside Gaza in third party countries such as Egypt, Jordan, and Qatar. Furthermore, they argued that the subjects discussed included a cease-fire with Israel and the Fatah-Hamas unity government that was discussed this week.
During the talks, according to the report, Hamas gave the Americans guarantees that permitted them to support the unity government, despite heavy pressure by Israel to condemn it.
According to the diplomats, these commitments include a commitment to keeping the cease-fire with Israel. “Our government needed to hear from them that the unity government will advance towards democratic elections and peaceful solutions in the entire region,” an American official, who chose to remain anonymous, stated about the talks.
The official position of the US is that they didn’t conduct and will not conduct negotiations with Hamas until certain conditions are in place. “It is important to keep this dialogue path,” the American official stated.