White House: Won’t Say We Support Qatar Extraditing Hamas Leadership in Their Country

On Friday’s broadcast of Bloomberg TV’s “Balance of Power,” White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby declined to say whether the White House would support Qatar extraditing Hamas leadership in the country and stated that he won’t get into a hypothetical “about what that could look like.” But Hamas cannot be allowed to run Gaza post-war and Israel shouldn’t expect to live next door to them.

Co-host Annmarie Hordern asked, “[T]o Joe’s point about going after the leadership of Hamas, would the U.S. support the extradition of the political leader who’s in Doha?”

Kirby responded, “I’m just not going to get into hypotheticals right now, Annmarie, about what that could look like. Again, I can’t confirm those reports. All I can do is tell you that, we believe, with the Israelis, that we can’t go back to October 6, where Hamas is in charge in Gaza. Whatever happens post-conflict, that can’t be it. It has to be governance in Gaza that is meeting the aspirations of the Palestinian people, and, hopefully, through a revitalized Palestinian Authority. We can’t understand how Israel should be expected to live with Hamas as their next-door neighbor.”

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