Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1540302
5 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 12 OCTOBER 2025 INTERVIEW The following are excerpts from the interview. The full interview can be found on maltatoday. com.mt as well as our Facebook and Spotify pages. PHOTOS: JAMES BIANCHI / MALTA TODAY Are you hopeful the Trump peace plan will work? It seems this time the plan is legitimate. There have been many plans to end the attacks against Gaza, but this time we feel that the American administration is true and honest about the plan. Don't forget that this comes after the momentum of recognitions [of the Palestinian State] by the international community. This plan came as a response to the momentum that is rising in the whole world, that the attacks should stop, that the Palestinians do deserve to live freely and with dignity in their own land. This plan, as we see it, is a response to all these demonstrations, the recognitions, the international communities and the public's will to allow our people to live in freedom and dignity. Could this plan end up em- powering Hamas? There should only be one weapon in Gaza: The State of Palestine's weapon in Gaza, just to ensure safety and security of the people. Hamas, or any other faction, should never have weapons in Gaza. Only the legitimate Palestinian Authority should have them. Israel is offering, according to the Trump plan for Gaza, a safe passage for Hamas fighters. But who will identify as a Hamas fighter? Why would anyone say I am a Hamas fighter, for example, and have to leave Gaza? It doesn't make much sense for these fighters to come out and say, 'here's our weapon, we are leaving'. It's not logical. On the other hand, Israel have said many times that they want to end the Hamas rule in Gaza. But the Hamas rule in Gaza should be ended by the Palestinian people. There should only be one weapon in Gaza and the State of Palestine has to take its responsibility there. There are so many ambiguous points in the plan, including the future of Hamas, for example. Would Hamas stay as a faction or not? For us, Hamas was a political faction, but after what's happening now, we believe that Hamas should step down and let the people decide in fair elections who will lead the Palestinians. It took a while for Malta to recognise a State of Pales- tine. Why do you think that is? When I became an ambassador here, I was checking what kind of official agreements we have with Malta and I realised that we did not really have official recognition. We had only one statement that was submitted to the United Nations on 26 November 1988 by Malta's ambassador to the United Nations saying that Malta reaffirms its recognition of the Palestinian people's right to have their own state. On the other hand, an embassy of the State of Palestine was opened here in 1988. I presented my credentials in 2019 as Ambassador of the State of Palestine to the President of the Republic of Malta. I was officially the Ambassador of the State of Palestine, but according to the Maltese government, this was not official recognition. When the Spanish Prime Minister promised to recognise Palestine as a state, there was a bit of confusion. We had many talks, and then we insisted that we needed Malta to formally recognise Palestine as a state. And this is what the prime minister did. Why did it take almost a year and a half to do so? First of all, we had to decide whether it should be a formal recognition or not. Was the 1988 statement considered as recognition or not? We decided to go ahead and do a new formal, full recognition of the State of Palestine. I doubt the delay was anything intentional. The Maltese were saying they wanted to wait for the right moment. We believe that they did well by recognising Palestine at the conference in New York. Malta has always been supportive of us. They were the first to open a PLO office in the 1970s. They've always recognised our rights. How do you feel about Ian Borg nominating Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize? We're not sure when the nomination happened. Did it happen last January when Trump was first inaugurated to office? Well, that doesn't make much sense because he was still new to the office and he didn't do any agreements back then. But if it's a recent one, then it means that it was presented to President Trump for his efforts, as the statement said, between Armenia and Azerbaijan. But for us as Palestinians, we believe that he could have done much, much more for us before. He's the only one who has good relations with Netanyahu nowadays from the international community. And he's the only president who can tell Israel, to stop. He managed to make the Israeli prime minister call up the Qataris to apologise. He's the only one who could force the Israelis to do such an action. And he was the only one who came with this peace plan that we believe could be implemented. Yes, Trump tried to present himself as a broker of peace, and he's trying in Gaza. But it took way too long—10 months of suffering. He did an initiative earlier in the year when Hamas released one American hostage from Gaza, and the war stopped for around six weeks. But that's why we believe he's the only one who could have stopped it earlier. I don't think this was the right time to nominate him for the peace prize. Maybe next year after this plan is implemented, maybe if he helps establish a Palestinian state, we would actually help in the nomination.