Columna The Hill, 02.10.2025 Mark Toth (oficial retirado) y Jonathan Sweet (oficial de inteligencia retirado)
President Trump’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza quickly gained steam after it was released by the White House on Monday. The foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have signed a joint communiqué expressing “cautious support.”
Even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu endorsed Trump’s plan during a Monday Oval Office visit. That was a notable achievement, given that one of the primary end goals of the plan is a Palestinian state.
For now, most eyes are on Hamas and its response. Late Tuesday afternoon, Trump gave Hamas “three to four days” to sign off on the plan or suffer “a very sad end.” On Wednesday, a senior Hamas official was quoted saying they would likely reject it.
Hamas notwithstanding, there is one key player in the region largely being overlooked as the White House waits for a response: Iran. Tehran, heretofore Hamas’ largest benefactor and supplier of arms, has been largely silent.
Yet there are troubling tea leaves. During an interview last week on NBC News, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshian warned that Trump’s approach to the region is on a path that will “set fire” to the Middle East.
Although his remarks were aimed specifically at deterring future U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iran’s nuclear weapons, drones and ballistic missiles weapons systems and facilities, he repeatedly kept raising the specter of Gaza. He seemed to be hinting, in effect, that Gaza would continue to be part of that fire engulfing the region.
His aim? To buy Iran much-needed time to rebuild its decimated military capabilities. To do that, Pezeshian desperately needs Hamas to continue creating a distraction for Trump and Netanyahu. And as for Gaza’s civilians meanwhile? They can be damned, for all he cares.
None of us should ever forget what Ismail Haniyeh said in the aftermath of Oct. 7 about Israel’s response. He boasted that Hamas needs “the blood of women, children and elderly,” and reiterated that “we (Hamas) are the ones who need this blood.” The entire strategy is to create as much civilian death as possible, to bring the ire of the world down on Israel.
Iran needs that blood too in its war against Israel. And so in the same vein, when Pezeshian decried the murder of 65,000 Palestinians in Gaza during his interview, and when he claimed Israel was indiscriminately bombing civilians in Gaza, he was not seeking to stop the human suffering. He was exploiting it for Tehran’s benefit.
Iran is likely now Hamas’ last lifeline. Washington, Israel and the entire Arab and Muslim world must ensure it does not succeed.
It will not be an easy lift. Other state and non-state actors have vested interests in ensuring the war in Gaza continues. There is Russia, for example, , which has a history of saying one thing and then doing another. On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated, “Russia always supports and welcomes any efforts by President Trump aimed at ending this ongoing tragedy.”
But remember, Peskov repeatedly dismissed media reports that the Kremlin was preparing to attack or invade Ukraine, including in November 2021, when he rebuffed them as “a hollow and unfounded attempt to incite tensions.”
And we previously noted, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fingerprints were all over Oct. 7., in part to create distraction for his large-scale counteroffensive that started three days later in Avdiivka, Ukraine.
Moscow’s games are deep, just as Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s are in his war against Israel. Given his faltering war, Putin needs the U.S. distracted now more than ever in the Middle East.
Team Trump must ensure that Iran is incapable of providing this lifeline to Hamas. Whereas Israel has effectively sealed off the Gaza Strip from arms and munitions resupply, Washington must cut off any funding as well.
To this end, the reimposition of snapback sanctions due to Iran’s violations of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action are timely, although Bitcoin and other means of covert funds transfers exist.
Peace is needed in Gaza. Far too many innocent civilians have been killed since Oct. 7. And while yes, John Spencer is correct that Israel is not committing genocide by any legal international definition, Israel’s military has by now accomplished its primary objective: Hamas is no longer a material military threat.
Team Trump must ensure that Israeli far right-wing activists – many, including Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich who sit in Netanyahu’s war cabinet – do not derail this arguably last-ditch peace effort. Their use of genocidal-like rhetoric is immoral and counter to Israel’s long-term viability as a nation.
Children’s lives are at stake — far too many young children on all sides have been killed on and since Oct. 7, 2023. The Middle East, as a region, must ensure that this war finally ends and that Gaza permanently finds peace and prosperity.
Getting there, however, also means dealing with the catch-22 that is Hamas. Neither Hamas nor its militant partners such as the Palestinian Islamic Jidhad can be allowed to have any direct or indirect political or armed means of influencing Gaza’s future governance. That means forcefully getting rid of Hamas if it refuses to accept Team Trump’s plan. Yet this can no longer simply be an Israeli effort. Hamas cannot be allowed to use the blood of this generation or future generations of Palestinian children.
It must be a joint effort between the Israel Defense Forces and the International Stabilization Force as envisioned by Trump’s 20-point plan. If Israel is forced to militarily defeat all of Hamas, then the stabilization force must follow through on ensuring safe passage and administration of Hamas-free zones.
This also means Egypt has to make hard decisions. Cairo must no longer hide behind the argument that allowing Palestinian refugees to be temporarily relocated to northern Sinai will lead to their permanent displacement. And Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi must take Trump at his word that he will not allow Israel to annex Gaza or the West Bank.
The West has absorbed 6 to 7 million Ukrainian refugees. Egypt must now do its part going forward to ensure that every possible Palestinian child and civilian is safely out of harm’s way at the hands of Hamas.
None of this will be easy. No one is going to get everything they want. But we cannot allow this last opportunity to fail. Young Palestinian and Israeli children are depending upon us to get this right. If any lifelines are to be given, then they are the ones who deserve them now and into a peaceful and war-free future.
