The US president has speculated that Palestinian militants sought to derail a Saudi-Israeli peace deal
US President Joe Biden has offered a theory on what might have triggered the surprise Hamas attacks that ignited the Palestinian militant group’s latest war with Israel: himself.
Speaking to reporters in Nantucket, Massachusetts on Friday, Biden speculated that Hamas was motivated to launch its October 7 assault on villages in southern Israel by US progress in negotiating a peace agreement between West Jerusalem and Saudi Arabia. The president claimed that the talks were heating up after a massive railway project, including a link between Riyadh and Israel, was announced at the G20 summit in September – a deal for which he took credit.
“I cannot prove what I’m about to say,” Biden said. “But I believe one of the reasons why Hamas struck when they did was they knew that I was working very closely with the Saudis and others in the region to…