A Gaza cease-fire deal remains uncertain because Hamas has no intention in reaching an agreement that will release the hostages seized on Oct. 7, Ido Aharoni, the former ambassador of the Israel Counsel General, told Newsmax on Sunday.
"It's their only leverage," Aharoni told Newsmax's "Sunday Agenda." "There's no reason for them to give up on that leverage and therefore, what you're seeing is a lot of smoke and a lot of noise, but not a lot of substance, unfortunately, and sadly for us and for the hostages and their families."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday, with talks concerning a U.S. plan aimed at ending the war, that any cease-fire deal must allow Israel to resume fighting until its objectives of freeing the hostages and ending Hamas in Gaza are met.
Aharoni said that there are "evidently strained" relationships between the White House and Netanyahu, but the relationships between the Israeli and U.S. security establishments are as "tight as ever."
"[They are] working in a very transparent fashion and working beautifully together," he added.
In other matters, Aharoni discussed the election of reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian in Iran's runoff presidential election on Saturday, commenting that his selection could be the "last chance that we have, at least in the foreseeable future, to bring about an internal change within the Iranian system."
He added that it's important to remember that Iran is the largest Shiite country in the world, and that the issue the West has had is not with the Iranian people but with its regime.
"The Iranian regime's position has been uncompromising," he said. "It's about the exploitation of the Islamic revolution. They're functioning de facto as an agent of chaos, not only within the Shiite world."
He added that the West must undertake a coordinated, united effort to tackle the issues with Iran.
"Israel has been pretty much alone talking about it publicly," said Aharoni. "We have not seen the effort, the international united effort, to try to tackle the issue of Iran."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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