Photo/Illutration Hamas adviser Taher al-Nunu during an interview in Cairo on March 9 (Ryosuke Ono)

CAIRO—A senior Hamas official said direct talks with the United States were helpful and could help advance negotiations with Israel toward a permanent cease-fire.

Taher al-Nunu, adviser to Hamas’ political bureau, said the Islamist militant group held multiple rounds of dialogue with U.S. hostage envoy Adam Boehler in Doha in March.

“I believe our talks with the Americans were positive,” al-Nunu told The Asahi Shimbun here on March 9.

While the U.S. government avoided direct contact with Hamas, which it designated as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997, the Trump administration upended the policy.

According to al-Nunu, direct talks with the United States started after the first stage of the Israel-Hamas cease-fire agreement ended on March 1.

Hamas has been calling for a swift transition to the second stage, in which Israeli forces will completely withdraw from the Gaza Strip and a permanent cease-fire be established.

But the administration of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has demanded an extension of the first stage.

Al-Nunu said Hamas-U.S. talks have covered the second stage of the cease-fire agreement.

“From our side, we had no objection to releasing those soldiers or bodies as a part of the second phase, or even as a start for the second phase,” al-Nunu said, referring to an Israeli hostage with U.S. citizenship and the bodies of other dual-nationality soldiers.

Boehler told CNN on March 9 that talks with Hamas were “very helpful” and an agreement on the release of all hostages could be struck within weeks.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump issued what he called a “last warning” to Hamas on March 5 to immediately release all hostages being held in Gaza.

“We believe that what Trump writes sometimes are emotional reactions,” al-Nunu said. “We are dealing with decisions and situations that we receive through official channels.”

Trump also urged the Hamas leadership to leave Gaza.

“Why would we leave our homeland?” al-Nunu said. “The (occupiers) should leave our land.”

Al-Nunu was a close aide to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, chief of the group’s political bureau, who was assassinated in Tehran in July.

Al-Nunu said Hamas wants to continue to be engaged in the administration of the Gaza Strip after the conflict with Israel ends despite staunch opposition from Israel and the United States.

In an interview with The Asahi Shimbun in June, Mohammad Mustafa, prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, said Hamas could be involved in the postwar governance of Gaza if the group joins the Palestine Liberation Organization that represents all Palestinians.

Al-Nunu said Hamas has been in “continuous” communication with the Palestinian Authority and that the group is “demanding” to be part of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

(This article was written by Fumiaki Sonoyama and Ryosuke Ono.)

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