As a tenuous ceasefire between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas continues, concerns are mounting over how much influence Turkey and Qatar — two countries with deep ties to Islamist extremism — will have in the implementation of the Gaza peace plan.

According to reports, Hamas only accepted the terms of the Trump administration’s 20-point Gaza peace plan two weeks ago after an “unequivocal” message from Turkey that the terrorist group must accept the deal. Over the last 15 years, under the iron grip of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey has been a key ally of Hamas, supplying the terrorist group with tens of millions of dollars and serving as a center of their operations. Erdogan has stated that Hamas is not a terror group but a “political party.”

Sources say that Turkey is now looking to “reap dividends” from its central role in negotiating the Gaza ceasefire, and observers see Ankara as having “new diplomatic leverage at home and abroad” as a result. Last week, it was reported that Turkey had appointed a former head of its disaster management agency to lead the Gaza aid program, “a sign it intends to ramp up its role as a guarantor of the new ceasefire.”

According to experts, the only other country equal to Turkey in its support of Hamas is Qatar, which has served as the headquarters for Hamas leadership for the past decade and has been as a principal financial supporter of the terror group. Jonathan Schanzer, who serves as executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, is pointing out that Qatar’s support of Islamist extremism goes well beyond its backing of Hamas.

“[I]t’s not even that [Qatar] are supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood worldwide,” he explained during “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” Wednesday. “They are sponsors of the Taliban. They’ve been providing safe haven to al-Qaeda and to the Islamic State. This is a full-on radical patron, terrorist patron in the Middle East, and they also masquerade as allies of the United States.”

“The Turks [are] involved in a similar game,” Schanzer continued. “They have been sponsoring Hamas since roughly 2011. On top of that, they’ve been helping the Islamic State [by] allowing fighters to cross their border, selling the oil derived from the Islamic State before it collapsed. They’re major Muslim Brotherhood supporters, [and] they’ve been involved with some of the al-Qaeda affiliate groups that have been ravaging the Middle East. These two countries are wolves in sheep’s clothing, and right now they have a seat at the table in Gaza. I don’t think that anything good comes of these two countries. … I think asking them to get involved likely means the return of Hamas, maybe just under a different name.”

Schanzer went on to warn of the potential hazards of the U.S. working with Erdogan. “Erdogan is an extremely dangerous man. He’s been eviscerating Turkish democracy. He actually helped Iran evade sanctions at the height of that effort to thwart the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program and pocketed huge amounts of money, and so did his family members as well. He is an Islamist [and] an anti-Semite. He’s anti-American. This guy has no business having a seat at this table.”

Still, Schanzer acknowledged that President Trump is aware of the stakes and appears to be willing to gamble with Erdogan. “It’ll be fascinating to see if he can do it — high risk, high reward. He thinks he can co-opt Recep Tayyip Erdogan … the strongmen of Turkey. They have a good relationship. Erdogan seems to respect Donald Trump. Donald Trump seems to like him. I don’t think he has any illusions about what the Turks have been up to under Erdogan’s rule. The question is whether he can bring Erdogan to heel. And on that, I’m just not sure that this man is going to be willing to play ball. We may yet find a way to chicken wing and to strongarm Erdogan. But if we don’t, the price will be Gaza, and it could be the return of Hamas.”

Meanwhile, Schanzer expressed dismay that the Trump administration appears to be favoring Qatar and Turkey over more dependable Middle East allies.

“America’s traditional allies, Israel’s allies, and maybe even future allies … the Emiratis and the Saudis — they’re wondering why the United States has just offered Qatar and Turkey to play a role in the future of the Middle East and the future of the Gaza Strip after engaging in bad behavior when they were the ones that were playing by the rules, working with the United States, being good allies — and now they’re on the outside looking in,” he pointed out. “So our alliance structure right now is a little bit skewed … and I think we’re going to have a little bit of work to do. This is not stuff that’s all insurmountable.”

Schanzer further voiced discomfort over the U.S.’s apparent willingness to meet face to face with Hamas. “[I]t actually appears that [U.S. envoys] Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner sat down with Khalil al-Hayya, one of the top leaders still living from the Hamas organization. They met him in Qatar. This is a flagrant violation of American norms and policies. Our policy, dating back to the presidency of Richard Nixon, is not to negotiate with terrorists. We have done that here in order to get a deal done.”

“I think many Israelis are thankful. Many Americans are thankful. But I think we need to be really careful,” Schanzer cautioned. “… This is dangerous stuff that we’re doing.”