Rubio indicates US could accept Hamas keeping certain arms if they aren’t enough to threaten Israel

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio doesn’t seem to rule out the possibility that the US will pursue a Hamas disarmament plan that differentiates between heavy and light weaponry.

Rubio is asked during a press conference whether the US is prepared to accept the reported Hamas willingness to give up its heavy weapons while holding on to its lighter ones.

“I’m not going to get into the details of those types of negotiations,” Rubio says.

“I would just ask everyone to focus on what are the kind of weapons [and] capabilities that Hamas would need in order to threaten or attack Israel as a baseline for what disarmament needs to look like,” he adds.

“If Hamas is ever in a position in the future that they can threaten or attack Israel, you’re not going to have peace,” he says. “You’re not going to convince anyone to invest money in Gaza if they believe another war is going to happen in two, three years… That’s why disarmament is so critical.”

“What that entails, we’re going to leave that to the technical teams to work on. It would have to be something that our partners can pressure them to agree to. It also has to be something that Israel agrees to for that to work,” he adds.