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Iran warns about ‘untrustworthiness’ of Israel, US in Gaza cease-fire talks
Iran’s Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani issued the warning in a telephone conversation with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Friday. Kani wrote in a post published on the social media platform X on Friday evening that he and the Qatari prime minister exchanged opinions “about the developments of the second day of talks to stop the genocide by the Zionists in Gaza.”
“Referring to the aggression and criminal nature of the Zionists in Gaza, I warned about the deceit and untrustworthiness of the criminal gang ruling Tel Aviv and their most important supporter, the United States, at the negotiating table,” he stated.
Bagheri Kani also said that the United States, which is present in the cease-fire talks, is providing weapons to Israel which makes it “an accomplice, not a neutral mediator.”
Earlier in the day, the US, Qatar and Egypt issued a joint statement saying they held Gaza cease-fire talks in a positive atmosphere in the Qatari capital Doha. They added that the talks were “serious and constructive.”
The mediators put forward a “bridging proposal” that would allow the “swift” implementation of a deal that would end the war in Gaza and see the release of Israeli captives, the joint statement said.
The mediating trio claimed that their proposal “narrows the gaps between the parties,” referring to the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas and the Israeli regime.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden said, “We are closer than we have ever been.”
A senior Hamas official on Saturday dismissed optimistic talk by Biden that a Gaza truce is nearer after negotiations in Qatar.
“To say that we are getting close to a deal is an illusion,” Hamas political bureau member Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP. “We are not facing a deal or real negotiations, but rather the imposing of American diktats.”
Hamas did not attend the Doha talks. An official of the movement, Osama Hamdan, had told AFP the group would join if the meeting set a timetable for implementing what Hamas had already agreed to.
Despite the cease-fire talks, the Israeli regime is pushing ahead with its air and artillery attacks in the besieged Gaza Strip as the genocidal war enters its eleventh month.
The latest massacres have raised the number of Palestinian deaths to over 40,000 and left more than 92,400 others injured.