The US administration warns Türkiye against hosting Hamas leaders on its territory

The United States believes no country should receive Hamas officials, the State Department said Monday, after press reports that part of the Palestinian Islamist movement’s leadership had left Doha for Türkiye.

“We’ve had this information in recent days that they have moved to Türkiye,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in response to a question… And we want to make it clear to the Turkish government, as we have to all countries around the world, that it’s no longer possible to act as if nothing had happened with Hamas”.

The US official didn’t explicitly confirm the presence of Hamas officials in Türkiye, but said he couldn’t deny it.

“We don’t believe that the leaders of a vicious terrorist organization should live comfortably anywhere,” let alone in a NATO member state, Miller added, calling for their extradition to the United States.

“Remember, Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization that has killed a number of Americans and continues to hold seven American citizens hostage to this day,” he said.

“So, if Hamas members are in Türkiye or any other country, a number of them have been under indictment by the United States for some time and we believe they should be extradited to the United States”.

Qatar, a US ally that until recently served as a mediator in the war in Gaza, has hosted Hamas’s political bureau for more than a decade.

Also, in Qatar, the former head of the Palestinian movement, Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed on July 31 in an attack in Tehran attributed to Israel, resided.

Qatar recently suspended its mediation efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the release of hostages.

Qatar has been involved with the United States and Egypt for months in mediation efforts to end the devastating war in the Gaza Strip, which broke out on October 7, 2023, following an attack launched by Hamas against Israel.