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Steve Witkoff, U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy said late on Friday that he believed the conflict with Hamas could end in a dialogue. Witkoff spoke with Tucker Carlson in a lengthy interview.
He said that although he was never in the same room with Hamas, he was able to trust the Qatari mediators. Hamas wanted to stay in Gaza until the end of time and rule the Strip he said but that was not acceptable to Israel or the United States. "We can't have a terror organization running Gaza," he said.
"What we heard from the beginning of this conflict is that Hamas is ideological, they are prepared to die," Witkoff said adding that he did not agree and did not believe they were ideologically intractable. "Once you understand that they wanted to live, then you were able to talk to them in a more effective way."
Witkoff spoke about his connection to the families of hostages and his empathy for them which he said was related to his own, personal tragedy when he lost his son to addiction. He said many of the families know that they may never see their children again. He told Carlson about the stories that hostages who were released shared with him and with Trump during their visit to the White House.
As to his understanding of the Israeli government's position and what they hope to achieve, he said he believed the government was well-motivated. He understands the assessment that Netanyahu is more concerned about the fight than the fate of the hostages but does not agree. "I think Bibi feels that he's doing the right thing and goes up against public opinion because public opinion wants the hostages home."
He said the hostage crisis has fractured Israel and he spoke with the prime minister about it.
Witkoff said the big issue in the region is Iran. He said the United States could never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. The next thing would be to stop Iran's proxies.
Witkoff said he believed there could be a normalization of ties between Israel and Lebanon and Syria.
The envoy said he is not afraid to use the term 2-states to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "We have to give people economic prospects. He said a resolution in Gaza could include a 2-state solution or not but the objective would be a better life for Palestinians and not only in terms of housing but in terms of a growing economy, better education and a future for their children.
"We got the cease-fire because they didn't want to defy him[Trump]" he said and not only Israel. He said Israel had to resume the fighting cause Hamas was not responsive to the proposals put forth by Witkoff at the Arab summit. "We may be able to use this to make Hamas be much more reasonable."
Witkoff said there was a huge concern over the possibility that the Jordanian or Egyptian regimes fall as a result of the Gaza war. To him solving the conflict in Gaza would lead to normalization with Saudi Arabia and stabilizing the region.
He spoke very favorably about Qatar and said accusing it of being an agent for Iran is preposterous. "They're a Muslim nation and in the past have had views that were a little bit more radical from an Islamist point of view, but it's moderated a little bit. There is no doubt that they are allies of the United States."
Qatar like other Gulf states want to make a deal with the U.S. "Everybody thinks a peace treaty is about defense when it's about the United States providing a security wrapper so that they are all financeable," Witkoff said explaining that these countries were unable to borrow money while there is a risk that their investments would be destroyed in attacks.