Jordan: Hamas victory will change shape of Middle East, says ex-PM

Jordan’s former Prime Minister Taher Al-Masri has said that the shape of the Middle East will change if Hamas wins the current confrontation with the Israeli occupation. Al-Masri made his comment after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that it will be Israel’s response to the Hamas attack which “will change the Middle East.”

“The Middle East will really change,” said Al-Masri. “If Hamas wins, and if Israel achieves its goals, it will change as well.” He attacked the Arab position on events in occupied Palestine, without specifying a country by name.

“The intensity of the bombing that Gaza is being subjected to today actually indicates that a ground war is coming, and that Israel is in the process of preparing and opening the way for it to enter the Strip by land,” explained the former Jordanian official. “The Israeli plans and eternal dreams of annexing the West Bank were disrupted by this war, which is also taking place on a piece of Palestinian land that includes 2.3 million Palestinian people.”

It is now clearer than ever before that the Americans and Europeans favour Israel, said Al-Masri. “Israel, whose army, government and people have been humiliated. They will later blame each other and disagree about the war.”

When asked by Ammon news website if the ongoing war will have any impact on the normalisation agreement expected to be reached between Saudi Arabia and Israel, he predicted that it will only delay, not cancel it. “I hope, though, that it will prevent it, and not just postpone it.”

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