“The man in the shadows” – the Bulgarian in the negotiations for negotiations between Israel and Hamas
The famous Arab hit from the recent past of the Egyptian Amr Diab “Tamaali Maak”, translated as “Always with you”, performed by the famous Israeli actor Tsahi Khalevi. The performance of this song is quite symbolic of the truce reached between Israel and Hamas.
A truce in which there is a Bulgarian trace – the Bulgarian Miroslav Zafirov, who works in the UN Office for the Middle East Peace Process and for years has been the UN liaison with Hamas and other Palestinian organizations, as well as with the Israeli state
I finished history in the Middle East and have been working in the Middle East for many years. Initially as a diplomat at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and for the last seven years as a UN employee, “Zafirov told bTV.
In order to achieve the difficult truce, he said, “the stubbornness of the mediators prevailed.”
We stepped on the unwillingness of both sides to negotiate. The terms and future of this truce are being discussed first and negotiations are under way between the various countries on the ground,” said Zafirov, who said he had spoken to Hamas every day for the past 72 hours with the UN special coordinator for the Middle East.
The purpose of these efforts is to talk to them stubbornly in these critical moments, to argue with them,” Zafirov explained. According to him, this was extremely important” in the last hours of escalation, to make it clear which lines are not must be passed”.
Hamas seemed to reach out and try to exert influence among the population of East Jerusalem and not a small part of the West Bank and a significant part of key points in Israel itself among the Arab population were the “red lines” that Israel strongly disapproved of. wants to negotiate.
Hamas, on the other hand, has made it a condition for Israeli security forces to stop their aggressive behavior toward Palestinians in East Jerusalem. These are the two things the two sides have been staring at and for which they still do not want to negotiate,” Zafirov revealed.
“If this agreement is violated, then we would enter a rather devastating war, which would go beyond what we remember from 2014,” the diplomat said.
This node is not untied. He’s been tied up for many years, and I’m a little afraid he’s getting a little unable to untie himself. And I’m not convinced that it may not happen in the coming months, but sooner or later it will happen again, ” Miroslav predicts.
There is a formula according to which both sides – I’m not talking about Hamas, but about the Palestinian political elite and Israel – are ready to sit at the table and negotiate within parameters that are already known to the mediators. There are some that will be renegotiated. We are constantly thinking about what to do next time and to tell you honestly even countries with much greater mediation skills, I think he was on the verge of saying that he could not cope.
All mediators should be congratulated,” the diplomat commented.
“I can’t say if being a Bulgarian helps me. Rather, it helps that a person is trying to stay normal. Let me tell you – it’s not always very easy. The tension is very high, especially in such moments, because Maybe it’s a lot of speculation, but maybe that’s what unites them – I think the Israelis, the Palestinians and the Bulgarians are extremely stubborn when we want to be stubborn. it helps a lot,” says Miroslav Zafirov.
He says he is not sure he understands the two sides in the conflict, although many people have made careers in recent years, claiming to understand Hamas and Israel.
“What is happening in Israel, in Palestine, in the Hamas organization itself is very difficult (to understand), especially if you are not from this neighborhood,” Miroslav commented.
Until the social and economic problems in Gaza are resolved, the cycle of violence will not stop, the diplomat predicted.
After the long marathon, our diplomat will not rest. He is due to meet with one of the delegations on Monday, followed by a round of ceasefire talks.
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