Diplomatic deliberations originally slated for this week between the Hamas terrorist organization and the chief envoy tasked with deploying US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan have been officially postponed, The National reported.
According to individuals knowledgeable about the situation on Wednesday, the high-stakes summit in the Egyptian coastal resort of Alamein has been pushed to next week.
The delay is intended to allow regional brokers from Egypt, Turkey, and Qatar additional time to secure a breakthrough regarding the highly contentious demand for Gaza-based terrorist organizations, particularly Hamas, to disarm. These intermediaries are currently conducting concurrent exploratory sessions with representatives of those groups in both Egypt and Ankara, according to The National.
The postponement was directly initiated by Nickolay Mladenov, the Bulgarian diplomat heading the Board of Peace established under the Trump framework.
Mladenov has firmly conditioned the advancement of the peace initiative’s second phase upon the complete disarmament of Gaza’s armed factions, a requirement that extends to individual firearms.
“He wanted the Alamein talks postponed to give the mediators time to persuade Hamas and others to modify their position on the question of disarmament,” explained an informed source quoted by The National. “There’s no guarantee that this will happen and the Palestinians may now be looking to see what they can get if Iran includes Gaza in any deal to end its war with the US.”
The core logistical bottleneck centers on the definition of disarmament. Hamas has expressed a willingness to relinquish heavy weaponry, including machine guns and rocket batteries, but insists on retaining personal firearms. The group maintains that transitioning to the second phase of the Trump accord was never legally predicated on a total weapons surrender and is demanding the full execution of first-phase requirements, specifically the unrestricted influx of humanitarian assistance into the enclave.
Conversely, Islamic Jihad refuses to disarm to any degree and has accused Mladenov of projecting a pro-Israel bias.
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