Iran is working behind the scenes, using diplomatic and military means, to undermine American efforts for a new order in the Middle East, focusing on preventing a ceasefire and ending the war in the Gaza Strip, as this is the key to regional change, Yisrael Hayom reported, citing US and Arab sources.

The report added that Iran is working to sabotage contacts between Israel and Syria [which is currently irrelevant in any event due to the clashes in recent days], and efforts to persuade Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords.

According to the sources, Iran is pressuring Hamas to harden its positions in the negotiations in Doha on a ceasefire. Last Wednesday, there appeared to be significant progress, with Hamas expressing willingness to accept the withdrawal maps that Israel presented, but at the last moment everything changed, with Hamas hardening its position on the withdrawal maps and other issues that had already been agreed upon.

An Israeli source familiar with the negotiations told Yisrael Hayom that the Qatari mediators, who had been smiling a few hours earlier, announced Hamas’s new position with grim faces and without providing an explanation. They clarified that Hamas demanded an immediate Israeli withdrawal to the lines before the resumption of fighting in early March and to the international border by the end of the 60-day ceasefire.

This change was received with shock on all sides, and it is what apparently prevented the announcement of a ceasefire by President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in Washington—exactly what Iran was trying to prevent.

Alongside its interference in the negotiations in Doha, Iran is also threatening Syrian President Ahmed al-Shara that it will bring about the resumption of the civil war, and it is encouraging various terrorist organizations and ethnic groups to renew clashes. According to the report, Iranian actions have contributed to hostile militias nearing the Israeli buffer zone and the clashes with the Druze in Sweida and other areas.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)