During an extended edition of CNN’s “Laura Coates Live” that covered the reported assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, CNN Senior International Correspondent Ben Wedeman said that the killing of Haniyeh “sends a message that Israel has given up on the negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza,” and CNN Military Analyst Col. Cedric Leighton (Ret.) argued that the killing “could potentially be…a way to stop every single aspect of these negotiations at least in the short term.”
Wedeman stated the killing of Haniyeh “certainly isn’t going to help calm things in the region. I’m sure that there are many people who have — are probably going to come to the conclusion that Israel has decided that there’s no hope in negotiations to release the hostages in Gaza. And so, it’s going after the negotiators. Ismail Haniyeh, who was the political leader of Hamas, not the military leader of Hamas, was heavily engaged in these negotiations, obviously, not directly with the Americans or the Israelis, but through the Qataris and the Egyptians and others. He was the man…who was sort of stating Hamas’ position. So, it seems that Israel’s simply given up on those negotiations and is going ahead and eliminating the leaders of Hamas when the opportunity arises. … And, as I said, it just sends a message that Israel has given up on the negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza, for the peaceful release of these hostages who are still alive in Gaza and is simply going forward with assassinating the people it was indirectly negotiating with.”
Leighton added that the Haniyeh killing “could very well be” Israel giving up on negotiations, “at least in the near term, because when you go ahead, and as Ben was talking about just now, eliminating the lead negotiator for Hamas in these negotiations that they’ve been in conducting in Qatar and in Egypt, as well as in Rome, that really puts a stop to any of those diplomatic efforts. And I agree with Ben that this could potentially be a — really a way to stop every single aspect of these negotiations at least in the short term. Because what that does is it puts Hamas in a specific box right here. And now, that they’re, more or less leaderless on the political side, at least, it also puts a lot of pressure on the military wing of Hamas.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett