War on Jihad

Trump administration's direct talks with Hamas break an old taboo

By Adam Taylor, Heba Farouk Mahfouz & Gerry Shih The Washington Post (TNS)

Published March 7, 2025

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Under the Trump administration, U.S. officials have begun meeting directly with Hamas, breaking a long-standing - although sometimes flexible - U.S. policy against talking with groups Washington has designated as foreign terrorist organizations.

The meetings, which come as President Donald Trump pushes to broker an agreement to end the war in Gaza and release the remaining hostages held by Hamas, mark a shift in policy from the Biden administration, which had worked with outside mediators to interact with Hamas.

The first known meeting between a U.S. official and a Hamas representative occurred recently in Doha, Qatar, where U.S. special hostage envoy Adam Boehler was meeting to discuss hostage releases. On Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt did not deny the meeting, telling reporters that Boehler has "the authority to talk to anyone."

Also Wednesday, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a terse statement saying that it had "expressed its position" on the talks to the United States in private.

Netanyahu was not informed of the talks through official channels before they took place and was caught off guard, said an Israeli with knowledge of the matter. Separately, an Israeli official said that if Trump were to secure the release of U.S. hostages but not Israeli citizens, the issue could cause embarrassment for the prime minister domestically. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details.

The U.S.-Hamas talks have largely been focused on securing the release of American Israeli hostage Edan Alexander and the bodies of four other American Israelis - Itay Chen, Omer Neutra, Gad Haggai and Judi Weinstein - the Times of Israel reported Wednesday.

On Thursday, Trump acknowledged the talks. "We are having discussions with Hamas," he said, adding that the United States was also talking with Hamas about Israeli hostages.

The United States designated Hamas a terrorist organization in 1997, years before it won elections in Gaza and soon split with the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority. It has been blocked out of direct talks ever since.

Though the Biden administration was engaged in negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas, it worked through mediators rather than talking directly to the Palestinian group.

"Qatar is talking to Hamas, Israel is talking to Qatar, the United States is talking to both to try and move forward to a point where hostages can be released," White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in November 2023.

The United States has held a firm, though informal, prohibition against negotiating with terrorist groups for decades. However, it most directly applies to negotiations for U.S. hostages.

Historians date the policy to 1973 after a Palestinian group took two American diplomats hostage along with others in Khartoum, Sudan. President Richard M. Nixon told reporters he would refuse to give in to the kidnappers, arguing that it would amount to giving in to "blackmail." The hostages were killed the next day.

In reality, the policy has long had a degree of flexibility.

The Reagan administration led negotiations with Iran to free hostages taken in the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Under President Barack Obama, the U.S. government negotiated with the Taliban for the release of U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl, who was being held by the Haqqani network, a U.S.-designated terrorist group allied with the Taliban.

The rule has also been loosely applied when U.S. hostages were not involved. In 1994, President Bill Clinton agreed to grant a visa to Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein and a key figure in the Irish Republican Army, overriding a 20-year-old U.S. law that barred visas to anyone connected to terrorist groups.

The Trump administration's decision to talk with Hamas was welcomed by some allies, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina). "I trust Trump," Graham told Fox News on Wednesday.

Other analysts viewed the decision as harmful to Israel.

"Any negotiation, mainly direct negotiation, provides Hamas with a broader layout or space of maneuver as well as legitimacy. Furthermore, it enables Hamas to manipulate and play between Israel and the U.S.," said Kobi Michael, a former head of the Palestinian desk at Israel's Ministry of Strategic Affairs and now a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

Hamas is believed to have 24 living hostages, as well as 34 bodies of hostages either killed in the initial attack on Oct. 7, 2023, or in captivity.

After meeting with a small group of released hostages at the White House on Wednesday, Trump wrote that he wanted Hamas to "release all of the Hostages now, not later," adding in the message on Truth Social that there would be "HELL TO PAY" if it did not.