Khaled Meshaal: Trump should listen to MAGA base and abandon Israel-first policy

Senior Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal has urged US President Donald Trump to abandon Washington's Israel-first policy, saying even Trump’s own MAGA supporters now view Israel as a “burden” that harms US interests.

Speaking to Drop Site in Doha on Thursday, Meshaal, head of Hamas outside of Palestine, stated that the "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) faction of Trump's supporters now views Israel as a strategic burden.

“Unfortunately, one of the problems with the US administration is that it prioritizes Israel’s interests more than the United States’ own interests,” Meshaal said, adding, “even Trump’s people—MAGA—came to realize that Israel is a burden on them, restricting and harming US interests.”

Meshaal said that if the United States were to compel Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories, Hamas and the Palestinian people would welcome such a role.

He also said that Hamas is ready to work closely with the US and the international community in creating a stable security environment inside Gaza that will enable the reconstruction of the enclave, prepare the ground for democratic elections, and create the political conditions for negotiations addressing the future of a Palestinian state.

 “Any attempt to establish a non-Palestinian authority inside Gaza is first unacceptable and second doomed to fail,” Meshaal underlined.

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“Any non-Palestinian authority—meaning foreign authorities or foreign forces inside Gaza—would be treated by Palestinians as an occupying authority, as an occupying power,” he said, asking, “Why would Palestinians reject Israeli occupation but accept another form of foreign occupation?”

The conversation came some two months after a ceasefire began in Gaza, mediated by the US, Egypt, and Qatar. Meanwhile, Washington is planning a so-called International Stabilization Force in Gaza, pushing other countries, including Muslim nations, to contribute troops. 

A number of Arab and Muslim states, however, have made clear they will not participate in any operation aimed at disarming or confronting Palestinian resistance groups.

“What we will not accept is occupation, guardianship, or support for an occupier. We criticize the United States not because it is the United States—no—but because it provides Israel, our occupier, with complete support in all forms,” the Hamas leader said.

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“It is in the interest of the United States and Western capitals to pursue positive engagement with Hamas and with the Palestinian people, because we are the future, and this occupation will become part of the past,” he emphasized.

Meshaal said Israeli violations continue despite the halt in large-scale fighting, and stressed that Israel must fully comply with the first phase of the agreements before moving to subsequent stages. He added that Hamas remains committed to the second phase through ongoing talks with mediators.

He has also outlined Hamas’s position that while it is open to a “freezing” or storing of its defensive weapons, it will not agree to disarmament unless it is in the context of establishing a Palestinian army or security force capable of defending itself from Israeli aggression.

Despite the justifiable anger Palestinians may harbor toward some Arab states for their lack of intervention against Israel’s genocide, Meshaal emphasized, it is the US that holds the only leverage over Israel.

“President Trump and the American administration alone are capable of compelling Israel and [the Israeli prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu to respect the agreements, so they bear this responsibility before we assign responsibility to any regional or international party,” he further said.

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