ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The Islamic Resistance in Iraq is ready to receive Hamas or any other resistance factions, however the final say belongs to the Iraqi government to make way for such a move, a leader of one of the Iran-backed Iraqi armed groups told The New Region on Saturday.

Days after Donald Trump, Iran’s largest American nemesis, was elected President of the United States for the second time, several outlets reported that Qatari authorities have been told by the US that the presence of Hamas leadership in the country is no longer acceptable.

The latest developments come after yet another round of ceasefire talks mediated by Doha were to no avail mid-October, leaving the country in a stance where they no longer wanted to take part in the negotiations if there was no intent to come to an agreement.

Citing a source familiar with the talks, Reuters on Saturday reported that Doha has concluded that the political office of Hamas in Doha “no longer serves its purpose”.

In a separate article on Saturday, Reuters cited an American official saying that the US has told Doha that leaders of Hamas should no longer be welcome in Doha given their rejection to release hostages taken during the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel.

The source added that Doha had made the demand to Hamas leaders over a week ago.

The last time there were talks of a possible Hamas leadership relocation was in June. At the time, Iraq was perceived as a possible destination for the group to open their political office, but there was no intent from Hamas to move its politburo office to Iraq, nor was there any talk of a Qatari expulsion of the group.

The Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs addressed the claims on Saturday, saying that “Qatar notified the parties 10 days ago during the last attempts to reach an agreement, that it would stall its efforts to mediate between Hamas and Israel if an agreement was not reached in that round, stating that Qatar will resume those efforts with its partners when the parties show their willingness and seriousness to end the brutal war and the ongoing suffering of civilians.”

Majed bin Mohammed Al Ansari, spokesperson for the Qatari foreign ministry, said that “media reports regarding the Hamas office in Doha are inaccurate, stating that the main goal of the office in Qatar is to be a channel of communication between the concerned parties.”

The New Region reached out to the media office of Hamas, who were not immediately available to comment at the time this article was published.

Even though there have not been any clear indications to where Hamas leadership would head in the event Qatar no longer offers them asylum, pro-Iran Iraqi armed groups, like they were in June, still have their arms open to the Palestinian group, if they were to move to Iraq.

However, this time it comes with a twist, and that is the approval of the Iraqi government, an authority that these armed groups have time and again defied.

“There is nothing preventing Iraq from receiving Hamas and other global political movements, as this matter concerns Iraq and it is a sovereign country and no country, America or others, can object to that if Iraq wants to,” Ali al-Fattlawi, a senior leader of the Ansar Allah al-Awfiya’, told The New Region on Saturday.

“Iraq's position is clear in supporting the Palestinian cause as well as the Palestinian resistance at the governmental, political and popular levels, but opening such headquarters is within the powers of the Iraqi government, and we certainly support this matter and are ready to receive Hamas and other resistance movements, if there are official approvals for that,” Fattlawi said, adding that there has been no government approval for such matter as of yet.

Ansar Allah al-Awfiya’ are one of several armed groups in Iraq that function under the umbrella of the Iran-led Islamic Axis of Resistance. The group and its secretary general Haydar Muzhir Ma’lak al-Sa’idi were designated as specially designated global terrorists by the US State Department in June.

Another Iraqi armed group that in June told The New Region their doors would be open for Hamas if they were to relocate their office to Iraq was Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, an official part of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and therefore an official part of the Iraqi armed forces.

Despite not straying too far from their June stance, the group now feels that the call is for the government to make.

“The government is the one who answers this question and is in a position that allows it to do so,” Abbas al-Zaidi, a senior leader of the group, told The New Region.

Zaidi said that given that Iraq does not identify Hamas as a terrorist group, they can easily pave the way for such relocation.

“Iraq and the Arab countries did not say that Hamas is a terrorist movement, and the law of the Arab League and the articles of the Organization of the Islamic Conference allow Iraq and the Arab countries to do so,” he said, referring to allowing Hamas to enter their territory.

Zaidi was very diplomatic in his answers to The New Region, at no point during the conversation did he directly say what their group felt about a potential relocation of the Palestinian group to Iraq, a sentiment that was not very close to their stance over four months ago.

Spokesperson to the armed group, Kadhim al-Fartousi, at the time told The New Region that “if they [Hamas] want to come, our doors are open and will always be open for any Palestinian offices and political missions to come to Baghdad.”

Additional reporting by Bizhar Shareef